NOT HAPPY? TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT

By: Michaell Lange,

London, 11/05/16 –

They say: If you are not happy, just leave it. Find another job! But I say, not quite! 

You probably have heard that rubbish frase at some point in the past year or so. I had the unpleasant experience to hear that from a fellow worker suffering from the same unfair cuts that we are all going through. But, I try not to get upset by these comments. However, they do make me think a lot about why someone in the same situation as I am can say something so silly as this. I understand that everybody have their own priorities and ways of thinking, and many others just don’t understand what is really going on. If everybody could have a clear picture of what Carlyle Group is doing to Addison Lee drivers, I am sure that every single driver would be rebelling right now. But there is a careless factor in saying “take it or leave it”. It’s almost a statement of ignorance or even worse, a statement of complete disrespect to people. It goes beyond egoism and misunderstanding about the world we are living in.

When you say, take it or leave it, you are basically, speaking only and directly to one person, missing the point and the bigger picture by a mile. It does not solve any problem, it only creates more resentment. My question is: What about the rest of us? What about the other three thousand fellow drivers? Or even, what about the other hundreds of thousands of people suffering deep cuts in their incomes? I wonder if there is any legitimacy or any sense at all in saying, take it or leave it. What if all underpaid drivers, cleaners, washing-ups, cashiers, waiters, labours, chefs, helpers, and all other unskilled workers follow the idea of “take it or leave it” and decide to leave it? Firstly, where would they go to? Secondly, how would society function without these vital services? So, if you like to say, take or leave it, you are either a complete reckless individual or you haven’t got a clue of what you are talking about. If you fall on the second category, there is hope. Differently from what many people think, I believe that in many cases ignorance is an alibi. If you don’t know what you are doing, at least you should have some form of diminished responsibility, at least in some cases such as the one we are talking about now. In one way or the other it is, in my view, unjustifiable.

Another thing I would like to say to those people exercising their full rights to talk nonsense, is this: If I leave, where would I go? Is there an alternative? Is it take it or leave it a real choice? Or is this term used only to highlight the fact that between the two apparent choices, only one is really reasonable? Of course that if you are in a sinking boat and all other boats around you are also sinking, the only reasonable option you have is to stay where you are and try to save the boat you are in. The water isn’t really an option is it? So, why do some people on the same sinking boat as you, are criticising you for trying to save it, which inevitably would save them too? If the boat is going down, what is stoping you from helping those who are trying to save it?

My fellow Addison Lee drivers, I understand the power of fear and intimidation. Even when fear means fear of losing something you don’t really have. After all, if you work 60 hours plus, a week and at the end of each month you can’t even pay your bills, do you really have a job? Or is it just an occupation? The fact that matters to me the most in all of this mass caused by Carlyle Group, putting all of us through such financial pressure is this: We make all the money and Carlyle Group are telling us how much we can keep, which right now is something very close to nothing! How can we possibly accept that?

For me, it’s simple. I will not take it, and I will not leave it! I will stay and fight to the end to save this boat and everyone else on board, including all women and children! But I will not be able to do it by myself. I need your help. We, the Addison Lee Drivers United, need your help! Remember, a lot of people thought Titanic was unsinkable. I try to learn from history. I know that Titanic would never had sunk if the captain of that incredible ship had his passengers at heart instead of just try to break speed records in an area full of icebergs. We are the Addison Lee passengers and Carlyle Group, is unfortunately the captain of this ship, and our captain has no regards for its passengers. The only thing that matters to our captain is record breaking just like the captain of Titanic. Ladies and gentlemen, our ship will probably have the same fate of that of Titanic unless we combine forces to save it. It is a matter of time and therefore, we must stop our captain Carlyle from steer our ship recklessly towards the rocks. I remember some other famous shipwrecks. I was on board one of them recently. It was called Lewis Day plc. It was big, but it went down very fast. Another famous shipwreck was the City Link. This ship was also big and went down on Christmas day 2014 with everyone on board. Are we prepared to let our ship Addison Lee goes down like those ones, or are we prepared to fight Carlyle Group and stop them from throwing our ship to the bottom of the sea? We must decide it now! We have no time to waist and not much time to think. If you are still not involved with those already fighting to save our boat, you should seriously consider joining in as quick as possible. Don’t be careless! Don’t be afraid to fight for dignity and fairness! If we don’t fight back we will have to keep listening to those people telling us over and over again that rhetorical and nevertheless upsetting frase: “take it or leave it”. I’m not going to take that!

We are making every single penny of those hundreds of millions of pounds of Addison Lee profits every year while those responsible for making all the money are left with peanuts. When we complain they say; Take it or leave it. We are paying all the costs of our job including the costs of running the company while they are left with all the profits. But if we complain, they say: take it or leave it. We are taking all the stress and the long hours on the busy streets of London while they enjoy the honey, and when we complain they say: take it or leave it. We work allegedly like employees under a self-employment contract with no workers rights whatsoever, but they say: take it or leave it. Well, its time to make it clear to Carlyle Group that we, the Addison Lee Drivers United will neither take it nor leave it. We will stay and fight for our jobs and for those allegedly £25 million pounds taken from the drivers earnings in the past year alone so Carlyle Group can make Addison Lee’s numbers looking good for potential buyers. We will not take it or leave it! We will stay and show that Carlyle Group has no right to push thousands of Addison Lee families into poverty just to make their numbers and results looking a bit better. We will not take it! We will fight it and we will win it! If you are out there somewhere in fear, get up now and join this fight. Our fight!