Thread by @lliGrehpotsirhC, I used to work at @BikeforGoodGlaW (BfG)They claim to care about race [...]

I used to work at @BikeforGoodGlaW (BfG)

They claim to care about race and are trying to engage more people that aren’t white. Those people deserve to know what kind of behaviour BfG gets up to.

I write now for people that BfG has the potential to harm, the way it did me.

1/24

I held off speaking out about my bad experience at BfG because I hoped they would get better, and to leave the door open for them to get in touch with me about future work.

Neither of those things have happened.

2/24

I worked at BfG for over a year, mostly as a mechanic. I also did some work trying to change BfG to make it better so it would help more people, reach more people, and include more people.

3/24

I changed the fix-your-own space from fixed price to pay-what-you-can (down to zero),

and I was a founding member of the spokes-not-blokes team who created a project to welcome and include people of genders not usually welcome to diy bicycle repair.

4/24

The fixed price system disproportionately negatively affected cyclists who are not white.

BfG has since reverted its fix-your-own space to a fixed price system

5/24

BfG also collaborates with the likes of Serco (who literally lock refugees out of thier homes), BAE (arms manufacturers), and the Scottish Prison "Service": all organisations that harm people, and disproportionately people who are not white.

6/24

Whilst I was at BfG I wrote a brief report for them on their equalities problems. I designed and proposed a role of Equalities Officer, which would help address the issues. I offered to work the job myself for a rate lower than it deserves, and they rejected it.

7/24

As the end of my fixed term contract neared, BfG was in a financial situation that meant it could not afford to renew its mechanics’ contracts as they were; hours needed to be cut.

BfG invented a system to decide who would be kept on, which they described as "sociocratic".

8/24

BfG created a scoring system which inevitably led to people favouring those who are just like themselves, rather than basing the decision on things like length of service, skills, experience, qualifications, and concrete contributions to the organisation beyond one’s role.

9/24

A cliquey group of young white men decided who to keep and who to let go. So any young white lad with little to no experience working in a bike shop, no mechanical qualifications, and who has been there only a few months compared to my year+, could keep their job over me.

10/24

. @BikeforGoodGlaW made the decision to get rid of me for what amounted to not fitting in.

This wasn't their first removal of a mechanic who doesn't fit in; just ask @dynamosylwia, one of the few woman mechanics they've had, who doesn’t work there anymore.

11/24

I didn’t particularly want to continue working in an environment that would use racial bias against me (even unconsciously), but I could not allow such a decision to go unquestioned and unchallenged, so I mounted a formal appeal against BfG, which took them by surprise.

12/24

I did BfG the favour of showing them how they were wrong, and gave them the opportunity to right the wrong. They decided to uphold their decision.

13/24

I made it clear during the appeal that I might take the issue further to a tribunal if they made the wrong decision, but I didn’t really want to spend the time and energy, particularly emotional energy, to fight to keep a job in an environment where I wasn’t welcomed.

14/24

Maybe they guessed it was a bluff, maybe they didn’t understand I had that in mind; I don’t care.

15/24

When I left some colleagues told me I was always welcome there, and not to be a stranger; I was told that people liked me and like working with me; that I wasn’t being let go because I had done anything wrong.

16/24

Since I've been out of BfG I haven't once heard from them; they haven't offered me any sessional work, and haven't contacted me when they've been hiring for mechanics again.

I stopped following them on social media because I didn’t want to see, hear, or think about them.

17/24

Because I still work in the third sector cycling world an email from BfG has recently found its way to me; an email about Black Lives Matter from an organisation that was this close to creating an event called "Anti-Black Friday".

18/24

So now instead of simply enjoying my weekend in peace and going for a ride, I am forced to remember these people and their bad behaviour.

19/24

If you’re not white and considering working with @BikeforGoodGlaW (or indeed already do), particularly in a workshop capacity, you should know that it doesn’t matter what you contribute, how experienced or qualified you are, or how long you’ve already been working there—

20/24

—any old white person can come along with no experience, training, or qualifications, and take your job and you will be discarded because they fit in and you do not.

21/24

BfG does do some good, because some of its projects and some of its people are good, but do not kid yourself it was set up to do good; it was set up to be a nice little earner. At its core BfG is a savvy move by a former banker. It's not Bike for Good, it's Bike for Greg.

22/24

It’s a clever model: the raw materials (second hand bikes) are literally given to the company, the staff (bike mechanics) are underpaid and not unionised, and the customers (monied students) are right by BfG’s warehouse which hoards 100s of donated/abandoned bikes

23/24

. @BikeforGoodGlaW triggered this conversation by acknowleding racism in the industry; I'm challenging their complicity.

23/24

Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and ableism are widespread problems in the cycling world.

There are 2 places in Glasgow that I know do a good job: @_OnBikes (where I work) and Bike Hive (where @dynamosylwia works). @LINKESGLA also does great community work.

24/24

P.S. Here is an example of how not to respond.

I'm not interested in speaking @BikeforGoodGlaW about this. You had plenty of opportunity to get my help (and at a low rate) but now you couldn't possibly pay me enough.

25/24

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