“It’s Not Charity”—Labor Unions and Tenants Join Forces

Thanks to Jacobin for publishing this article by me today. You can read the article on their site here, or below: Hope Vaughn was a tenant union organizer before she knew there was a tenant union. When her New Haven, Connecticut landlord Ocean Management refused to address the mold in her apartment, the rodents in the building, and the standing, rancid water in the basement, Vaughn’s response was obvious to her. After more than a dozen years as long-term care Certified Nursing Assistant member of SEIU Local 1199 NE, she had no intention of fighting back alone. She began knocking on her neighbors’ doors and gathering signatures on a petition demanding repairs and a clean-up. “My union experience taught me that it may be easy for a landlord to ignore one tenant’s complaints, but even powerful people in high places are forced to listen when a lot of us come together,” Vaughn says. “There is strength in numbers.” Then one day, Vaughn overheard someone else outside a neighbor’s door, asking

Thanks to Jacobin for publishing this article by me today. You can read the article on their site here, or below: Hope Vaughn was a tenant union organizer before she knew there was a tenant union. When her New Haven, Connecticut landlord Ocean Management refused to address the mold in her apartment, the rodents in the building, and the standing, rancid water in the basement, Vaughn’s response was obvious to her. After more than a dozen years as long-term care Certified Nursing Assistant member of SEIU Local 1199 NE, she had no intention of fighting back alone. She began knocking on her neighbo