It is interesting to me for a couple of different reasons.
One, it means that the people that own bike shops in Toronto, Canada are organized to a point that they understand common needs for their industry. They are combining to meet those needs, in a manner that places long term profits ahead of short term profits. I have never seen anything like this from the retail bicycle shops in Baltimore.
Two, it means that the retail segment of the bicycle industry in Toronto is experiencing significant growth to the point where the bosses are not just hiring new workers, they are paying to train workers to do the job.
Three, is a question of the nature of these jobs. What is their pay? Is the work full or part time ... or is it seasonal? What are the conditions? Will these workers be able to maintain a life of dignity with the wages they are paid for their work?
It reminds me a of a quote I found when doing research on unionization in the early American bicycle industry (though the quote is in reference to the English bicycle industry).
The Economic Journal The Quarterly Journal of the Royal Economic Society By British Economic Association, Royal Economic Society (Great Britain), JSTOR (Organization), Ingenta (Firm)
I think this program will be a good thing. Give people training in an industry, especially one that is growing. Give them jobs. This is what we need to be doing especially now.
The only thing is that we need to be defending and improving these jobs. We need to make sure that work is dignified, reliable, high paying, and not subject to the whims of the bosses.
2 comments:
It wasn't the bike shops' idea AFAIK. The initiative started with Al Crawford from the City of Toronto who works with youth. He approached LEF about doing the course (LEF does training for all sorts of jobs). The bike shops gave about $9000 (according to the giant cheque from BTAC that I saw in photos of the launch). Not a big investment on their part, but commendable all the same. I don't see why any bike shop would think it a bad idea to have better trained workers so they all win with this small investment.
The course operated twice before with limited success and little planning in terms of tools, supplies or curriculum (I'm on the board of CBN that provided space for it last year). I hope they've improved the training because I believe only one person actually passed last year out of about 6-8 people starting.
I think the more successful downtown bike shops are probably looking more towards mechanics with more experience or who are trained through Winterborne (the only professional bike mechanics course in Canada).
I don't anticipate this course in raising the bar and professionalism of bike mechanics too much. Rather it seems be seen as an easy way to get underemployed people back into the work force with a minimum of training. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the professionalism required to keep commuters safe on a daily basis. A union, however, might help.
I completely agree with your sentiments about a union.
The combination of a real apprenticeship program, and an organization that is fighting to make retail bicycle work pay a living wage would make an extraordinary difference.
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