Ömür Sönmez: How the Crinch from Thuisbezorgd fired me

Being punished for criticizing authority: it sounds like something that occurs only in faraway, “undeveloped” countries. As a Turkish person I am thankful for certain securities in this country, for example: freedom of speech. Still, Erdogan-ish practices did happen in the workplace. A couple of months ago I expressed some criticism against my employer. As a consequence, I was fired, without getting the chance to reply. Perhaps, freedom of speech is not even that apparent in our “developed” countries. With a protest, we can demand back that freedom.

Demonstration January 29th at 15:00
Thuisbezorgd HUB Slingelandstraat 11, Amsterdam
Hands off Ömür!
Safe work and respect!
Freedom to organise!

A few weeks before Christmas I got a call from the hub manager of Takeaway.com Amsterdam. Unfortunately this was not about Christmas gifts, which we don’t get from our employer anyway. It turned out that the hub manager saw the protest of the Radical Riders at the Gorillas head office. He also read my story on the website of Radical Riders. Following this, he expressed his discontent and during the call accused me of having been present at that same protest. This man does not even know what I look like, so how he came to this conclusion is unclear. I was not at the protest. To these suspicions, the hub manager also added that “I’d just should stop working here if I apparently had this many complaints about the job.” This is typical: it clearly indicates the skewed relation between manager and worker at Takeaway.

What it was that I complained about? You can read that in: Ömür Sönmez, Takeaway: overworked, underpaid, organizing. I was forced to do dangerous work, had multiple accidents, and after that was punished financially as well. The managers were disrespectful and there were messages and apps which seemed like “1984” practices.

Thuisbezorgd: ‘the problem is people addressing problems’.

I won’t go into detail about that story again here, so back to the phone call with the hub manager. He might not have realized or did not want to realize, that I was definitely not the only worker with similar complaints. Those complaints are a symptom of a bigger problem at Takeaway and also the other delivery companies. An honest manager, who respects their workers and treats them as equals, would have listened to the criticism and would have genuinely looked for a solution. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Strict attempts were made to get me to talk with that certain manager one-on-one. But being alone in a talk with a manager, especially one like that, is tempting fate. In addition, I sill was not the only one with the problems I addressed. So I requested to have a talk as a team, with a couple other workers as well. Sadly, an open conversation like that was off the table.

Thuisbezorgd, black on white: ‘you are fired because you voiced critique online’.

Then the holidays came and went: I hoped that the Grinch’s heart had grown three times after Christmas. Sadly, it turned out that the hub was still stuck in the first act of A Christmas Carol.

I got fired on the 7th of January. In the new way: They just did not extend my contract. A supervisor sent me an impersonal message and that was it. The reason they gave me was the fact I shared my story on the Radical Riders website. I was not accused of any lies or nonsense. Just the fact that I dared to share something like this publicly was against “the values that Takeaway pursues”. I asked if they could tell what those exact values were then, but I never got a concrete answer. What I did get from all this, is that obedience must be one of these values for sure. Later it was ‘explained to me’, that if you share your experiences, it is ‘only logical’ that you will get treated like that afterwards. The arrogance of Takeaway got even more obvious then, because they did not hesitate to put this in writing. This is what I mean when I talk about the skewed relation between manager and worker. Takeaway simply tries to silence me and does this openly and without consequences.

Unfortunately for Takeaway, this goes against my own values, namely: the freedom to express concerns and complaints and the freedom to try and improve the working conditions, without any fear. My values make me strive for more labor unions and rights for workers. Therefore it does seem more than fair to me to take the agitation of Takeaway and give it back, with our own form of solidarity. Let’s come together this Saturday at the Takeaway Hub in Amsterdam! That way we will show our values and show how strong we are rooted in them.

Demonstration January 29th at 15:00
Thuisbezorgd HUB Slingelandstraat 11, Amsterdam
Hands off Ömür!
Safe work and respect!
Freedom to organise!

Join the Radical Riders!