The Winnipeg restaurant community has been abuzz since last week after a local campaign, Not My Stella's, was launched in an effort to bring awareness to the alleged mistreatment of employees, past and present, at the city's arguably most well-known local chain, Stella's.
The previously anonymous Instagram account run by three former Stella's employees--Christina Hajjar, Amanda Murdock and Kelsey Wade--lists issues like "transphobia, racism, unsafe worker conditions and misogyny" as reasons for them taking public action. To date, the account has garnered over 11,000 followers and the trio recently posted about receiving 275 disclosures and hundreds of messages from other former employees.
Stella's has not made any comments to local media sources, but has posted two official statements on its Facebook page, the most recent of which states: "Stella's is deeply concerned about a range of serious allegations and complaints being brought forward in recent days. The safety and security of all Stella’s employees is our immediate priority. We are fully committed to taking every responsible action to ensure a safe and respectful workplace for all employees, and a zero tolerance approach to breaches of respectful workplace policy will be enforced."
On Not My Stella's account, the organizers also posted a list of demands that they would like the restaurant chain to meet, which include both public acknowledgement for the mistreatment of staff as well as a public apology.
As of today, the company has yet to respond directly to the campaign.
