Recent attacks on the NLRB are forcing unions to consider their tactics. U.S. labor history may hold some new ideas.

The post How do we organize when union rights are under attack? appeared first on EWOC.

This month our Maine Mural podcast brings you interviews with houseless folks from Bangor who are being forced out of their encampment with little guidance as to where they should go.

The post Camp Hope, Bangor Maine appeared first on Pine & Roses.

By Skye K.

If you are reading this, you are very likely aware that ROC DSA has endorsed Stanley Martin, Chiara “Kee Kee” Smith, Tonya Noell Stevens, and Kevin Stewart—The People’s Slate—and Kel Cheatle for City Council, and Mary Lupien for Mayor in the city of Rochester. What you might not know is that in 2024, ROC DSA adopted a political platform to help guide our electoral decision-making and to communicate clearly our official, collective position on a variety of matters. One thing which in retrospect has been glaring to me is that we never published this platform publicly.

So in this column, I have become determined to share ROC DSA’s official platform. I’ll also explain some of our internal structure, and how we came to develop and adopt the platform!

How does ROC DSA make decisions?

We make decisions procedurally

“How do you make decisions?” is quite a reasonable and relatively-common question. More broadly, people often wonder about the internal structure of ROC DSA. Each year at our annual convention, the membership sets the number of Steering Committee (SC) members and elects that number from a pool of nominees who have self-selected or agreed after being prompted by the Nominating Committee. The Steering Committee then exists throughout the year to make relatively-fast-paced and -high-level (meaning more-abstract) decisions on the chapter’s business. Otherwise, our decision-making happens in Organizing Group (OG) meetings, at our regular general meetings (GMs), and at our annual convention. We believe strongly in true democracy and rigorous democratic process. Given a central body elected by membership, ROC DSA is in fact structured much like non-profit organizations are in New York state.

The annual convention is commonly (and correctly) cited as “the highest decision-making body in the chapter,” meaning that at the end of the day, the convention calls the shots! The reasons for this are partly-cultural—we generally amend the bylaws at convention—and partly-mechanical—we always elect our leadership at convention. For similar reasons, in my perspective, any meeting of a quorum of membership, announced ahead of time, is essentially “the second-highest decision-making body.”

When it comes to procedure during meetings, we often operate on a consensus decision-making model, but upon request any of our meetings must begin to run on Robert’s Rules with a handful of additional standing rules. This is primarily helpful for very large meetings or contentious decisions–the rules of order aren’t meant to stifle discussion, but to facilitate it in a timely way. There are of course advantages and drawbacks to this approach. Not everyone knows Robert’s Rules. Some consensus models feel more equitable. But there’s a hidden irony in consensus decision-making—recommended reading: The Tyranny of Structurelessness by Jo Freeman. 

For the purposes of debate, our convention and general meetings are always run on Robert’s Rules. The Steering Committee sets the agenda for GMs. Members can propose resolutions to the SC, and they are either taken up by the SC or added to the agenda for an upcoming general meeting.

We do stuff, too

It’s worth noting before going on that much of our work takes place at a less abstract level than the business of running and steering the whole chapter, within Committees, Solidarity Groups, and Working Groups. These are broadly referred to as Organizing Groups, and they are listed here:

Committees are tasked with certain internal functions. Examples:

• Accessibility works to improve and maintain accessibility for our meetings
• Communications runs social media and public outreach
• Member Engagement develops and communicates with membership
• Political Education produces poli-ed programs and materials

Solidarity Groups are self-selected and -directed bodies formed by 5 or more members of the chapter, possibly on the basis of shared identity or unified goal, often (but not necessarily) with the intention of building a campaign proposal, or advocating for specific politics within the chapter. Examples:

• The Socialist Feminist Collective
• The Queer Solidarity Group
• The Palestine Solidarity Group

Working Groups are similar to and often begin as Solidarity Groups, but they have proposed a campaign which has been adopted as a priority by the chapter at convention, and therefore have greater access to the chapter’s resources. Our three priority campaigns are:

• Rochester City Council and Mayoral races, run by the Electoral Working Group
• Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee, run by the Labor Working Group
• Rochester Grants Pass Resistance coalition effort, internally run by the City Vitality Working Group

Committees’ chairs are appointed by the SC on formation, and must elect a Secretary; Working Groups are also required to elect a chair and a secretary, and Solidarity Groups are encouraged to do so. These “OG Leaders” meet on a quarterly basis with members of the Steering Committee. All together, the Steering Committee and the OG Leaders are considered “chapter leadership.”

What’s in the platform?

2024 Platform Process

Now that you know roughly how we are structured and how we make collective decisions, briefly here’s how we put the platform together: for a period of about six months, beginning in March, the Steering Committee and the Electoral Working Group held discussions and solicited resolutions adding planks to a provisional platform. Over the course of September, at our General Meeting and at a special meeting two weeks later, we debated and voted on each of these plank resolutions, amending several of them.

The Electoral Working Group compiled those resolutions which were passed by the members into a final Platform Resolution, which was submitted to our 2024 annual convention, briefly debated with none speaking against, and finally adopted with 31 in favor and 2 opposed out of 59 present. This Platform Resolution resolved that:

• ROC DSA will adopt the platform
• ROC DSA will post the platform on its website
• Candidates seeking endorsement shall agree to the platform
• Actions or statements in substantial disagreement with the platform are considered cause for 10 members of ROC DSA to move to rescind endorsement of a candidate.

The resolution also created a Socialists In Office Committee (SIO), to be made up of elected officials endorsed by ROC DSA and members of ROC DSA appointed by the SC, to include the leadership of the Electoral Working Group.

ROC DSA Platform, adopted on November 9th, 2024

These are six of the seven resolutions (the seventh created the SIO) making up the Platform Resolution, summarized.

• No Increases to RPD Officers by Brent L, as amended
  • ROC DSA opposes any city budget that increases the number of sworn officers or increases funding to the police while neglecting other vital public services.
• Food and Agriculture by Elizabeth H
  • ROC DSA calls for the city of Rochester to endorse and implement the Good Food Program (a program created by The Good Food Bill in the 2024 NYS legislative session).
  • ROC DSA calls for 30% of all food purchased for Rochester institutions to be from local and regional farms and producers within two years, 50% within seven years, and 75% within nine years.
  • ROC DSA calls for the city to support the Rochester Food Policy Council efforts to end hunger and malnutrition, and hold regular work sessions with the council, twice a year at minimum, to coordinate goals, policies, activities, and funding opportunities.
  • ROC DSA calls for free school meals for all children, including breakfast, lunches, and weekend snacks, year-round.
  • ROC DSA calls for every public school to have a school garden coordinated with a nutrition training program for all grades.
  • ROC DSA calls on the city to take measures to limit the expansion of Dollar Stores, and to require that Dollar Stores already in operation in food apartheid neighborhoods carry fresh and healthy food.
  • ROC DSA calls for the city to develop a clear implementation plan within six months of approval of the Rochester Food System Plan, with a timeline and target achievements.
  • ROC DSA calls for zoning to encourage gardening and farming in the city with a definition of community gardens that recognizes multiple benefits – producing food, green space, education, conviviality, and a role in creating local food sovereignty. We call for the Real Estate Department to continue to control garden permits only for those properties that are suitable for development, and for all other spaces usable for gardens or urban farms to be under the purview of the City Recreation and Human Services Department.
  • ROC DSA calls on the city and the county to ban the use of glyphosate and other toxic pesticides and herbicides on parks, playing fields, and other lands managed by the county and the city.
  • ROC DSA calls for a $21.60 minimum wage in the city, the “living wage” for a single person.
  • ROC DSA calls on the city to expand the ROC City Compost Program to the entire city.
• Against Masking Bans by Mickey W
  • ROC DSA supports universal masking in healthcare settings and opposes mask bans.
• Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions by Brent L, as amended
  • ROC DSA expects endorsed elected officials to uphold the principles of BDS.
  • ROC DSA opposes any laws penalizing participation in the BDS movement.
• City Vitality by Skye K and Vincent L, as amended
  • ROC DSA supports public restrooms in the city of Rochester.
  • ROC DSA supports complete municipalization of “public” transit in Rochester, and a regular 24/7 schedule on all routes.
  • ROC DSA supports a ban on cashless operation for businesses in the city of Rochester.
  • ROC DSA supports a ban on hostile architecture, and removal of the same.
  • ROC DSA supports the labeling and banning of “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” (CPCs).
  • ROC DSA supports car-free zoning as an option residents may pursue for their own neighborhoods.
  • ROC DSA supports complete municipalization of Rochester Gas and electric.
• Harm Reduction by Matthew G
  • ROC DSA calls for the establishment of Overdose Prevention Health Centers in Rochester and the surrounding suburbs.
  • ROC DSA supports all methods and attempts at harm reduction, regardless of legality.

The post ROC DSA Has a Platform? first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

Upcoming Events

Wednesday, April 16 (6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): What Is DSA? (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Wednesday, April 16 (6:45 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Tenant Organizing Working Group Meeting (In person at 438 Haight)

Thursday, April 17 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Immigrant Justice Working Group Meeting (Zoom)

Friday, April 18 (12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.): Office Hours (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Saturday, April 19 (11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.): Flyering for May Day Events (Meet at 1916 McAllister)

Saturday, April 19 (12:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.): Tenant Organizing Mission Canvass (Meet at Café La Bohème, 3318 24th St)

Sunday, April 20 (5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): Capital Reading Group (Zoom and in person at 1916 McAllister)

Monday, April 21 (5:50 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.): Electoral Board Meeting + Socialist in Office Hour (Zoom)

Monday, April 21 (6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.): Ecosocialist Bi-Weekly Meeting (Zoom)

Monday, April 21 (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Labor Board Meeting (Zoom)

Tuesday, April 22 (7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.): Maker Tuesday: Red Cards (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Wednesday, April 23 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): DSA SF Tech Reading Group (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Thursday, April 24 (5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.): Education Board Open Meeting (Zoom)

Saturday, April 26 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Food Service (In person at Castro & Market)

Sunday, April 27 (1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.): Know Your Rights Canvassing (In person at San Francisco Botanical Garden, 1199 9th Ave)

Monday, April 28 (6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Tenderloin Healing Circle (In person at Kelly Cullen Community, 220 Golden Gate)

Monday, April 28 (6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.): Homelessness Working Group Regular Meeting (In person at 1916 McAllister)

Check out https://dsasf.org/events for more events and updates.

Events & Actions

Tenant Organizing Mission Canvass

Tenant organizing is hosting a canvass in the Mission! Join us in talking to tenants about their housing conditions and how collective power can help. This action will be great for organizers at any level of experience — if you’d like an orientation, you can meet us a little earlier at 12:30pm for training. Spanish-speakers and multi-lingual comrades are especially needed! We’re meeting April 19th 1:00 p.m. at Cafe La Boheme at 3318 24th St. 

Come Join the Tenderloin Healing Circle on April 28

All are welcome to attend the Tenderloin Healing Circle. The healing circle is a great way to connect, reflect, and share food with other DSA members and folks in the Tenderloin community. The Healing Circle will be meeting at the Kelly Cullen Auditorium at 220 Golden Gate Ave on April 28th from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Food is provided, and masks are provided and encouraged.

Capital Reading Group

DSA SF has started a Marx’s Capital reading group! We’ll be meeting every other Sunday from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at 1916 McAllister St. and also on Zoom. We’ll meet on April 20th to wrap up our discussion of chapter 1 and cover chapter 2 and the afterword to the second German edition. We’re reading the new translation published by Princeton University Press. You can also join the #capital-rdg-group-2025 channel on the DSA SF Slack for additional information and discussion!

Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing

The Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) is running a Fundamentals of Workplace Organizing course weekly in May (see below for schedule). We’re getting a group to take the course together and benefit from in-person discussions and activities,. If you’re interested, fill out the form here and join the #ewoc-fundamentals-2025 channel in Slack! The goal is to have more people learn organizing skills, both for your own projects and for organizing with EWOC.

Sessions run every week from 6:00-7:30 p.m. on 

• Wednesday, May 7
• Tuesday, May 13
• Wednesday, May 21
• Wednesday, May 28

The Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) is a project of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) to build a distributed, grassroots organizing program to support workers organizing at the workplace.

Office Hours

Co-work with your comrades! Come to the DSA SF office and get your DSA work or work-work done, or just hang out. We’ll  be at 1916 McAllister from 12:00 p.m to 5:00 p.m. on Fridays.

Behind the Scenes

The Chapter Coordination Committee (CCC) regularly rotates duties among chapter members. This allows us to train new members in key duties that help keep the chapter running like organizing chapter meetings, keeping records updated, office cleanup, updating the DSA SF website and newsletter, etc. Members can view current CCC rotations.

To help with the day-to-day tasks that keep the chapter running, fill out the CCC help form.

Statement from the Madison Area DSA Executive Committee on the Detention and Deportation of Pro-Palestinian Students, Faculty, and Staff

As scholars, faculty, staff, students, and members of the University of Wisconsin-Madison community, we members of Madison Area DSA condemn the immoral and unlawful kidnappings of our colleagues and neighbors from universities across the U.S. Our colleagues and peers have been targeted for opposing Israel’s genocide in Palestine in yet another display of the United States’ escalating fascism. These targeted detentions and disappearances are part of efforts to destroy scholarship in the United States, to force alignment with Zionist foreign policy, and to punish those who dare step out of the carceral, white supremacist, Zionist line.

Since March 1, 2025, at least four students have been arrested by ICE in scenes akin to kidnappings or Schutzstaffel-style disappearances: on video, masked ICE officers whisk Rumeysa Ozturk away, as a bystander asks, “Is this a kidnapping?”

On March 8, ICE arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a leader in the Columbia University student protests against Israel’s genocide in Palestine, from his family’s apartment in Columbia student housing without being charged for any crime. Khalil is being held in the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center.

On March 9, ICE searched the home of Yunseo Chung’s parents in an attempt to find her. Chung is a Columbia student and was present in Barnard College sit-ins. Chung has since filed a lawsuit alleging that “the administration is demonstrating a ‘pattern and practice of targeting individuals associated with protests for Palestinian rights for immigration enforcement.’”

On March 17, Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral scholar and instructor at Georgetown University, was detained by ICE. Suri was “approached by masked men outside his home.” Like other students targeted by ICE, Suri is accused of supporting Hamas–Suri’s lawyer argues that Suri is “being punished because of the Palestinian heritage of his wife–who is a U.S. citizen–and because the government suspects that he and his wife oppose U.S. foreign policy toward Israel.”

On March 25, plainclothes ICE agents arrested Rümeysa Öztürk, a scholar at Tufts, off the street without providing any identification–the encounter, which was captured on video, looks like a kidnapping. Although Öztürk was granted a petition to be held in Massachusetts, ICE transferred her to Louisiana. A DHS spokesperson accuses Öztürk of “supporting Hamas,” without providing evidence.

These incidents are not isolated. Students continue to be detained by ICE, including one University of Minnesota Twin Cities student on March 27, 2025. By the time this statement is published, it will surely be woefully out of date as our peers, neighbors, and colleagues continue to be targeted and kidnapped. As we wrote this letter, unjust arrests were made on UW-Madison’s campus at a protest against former US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield. Just days later, UW announced that students and staff in our community are victims of visa termination.

It is clear that this anti-immigrant, white supremacist, Zionist tendency seeks to punish scholars for taking the moral stance. Many targeted academics, including Mahmoud Khalil, are being held in the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center. This prison is owned by a private corporation, and is known for its unsafe and inhumane conditions. Accusations of mistreatment are many: “In 2016 alone, three immigrants died within six months. Following a fourth death in 2017, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties concluded that inadequate medical care contributed to “multiple deaths; sexual assault allegations have “plagued” the facility; prisoners are served unlabeled and expired foods.

As abolitionists, we extend solidarity with targeted scholars held in Jena, Louisiana, and elsewhere: imprisonment and cages are the violent arm of these efforts to silence activists and scholars, punish the poor, and exploit labor from the oppressed. 

As scholars, we understand that detentions are an attack not only on individuals, but on the pursuit of knowledge itself. There is no neutral scholarship, and we extend solidarity to our colleagues and neighbors who have been and continue to be targeted for challenging carceral, white supremacist, Zionist structures and motivations.

As socialists, anarchists, communists, and moral human beings, we believe the right of free speech should never be infringed. We believe that no-one should ever be imprisoned for acts of speech and peaceful protest. We believe that anyone who speaks out against genocide and hate should be lifted up, not denigrated as supposed terrorists.

The true cause of terror in American communities right now is this expanding fascist wave we see: this intentionally illegal abduction of citizens and scholars by masked agents must end. We demand: Hands off our colleagues, and hands off our communities!

See and share how federal workers can fight back against Trump's cuts regardless of their status with the FLRA.

The post How federal workers without a union can still act like a union appeared first on EWOC.

By Gregory Lebens-Higgins

Did Donald Trump stage an attempted assassination to score political points? Did McDonald’s help track down Luigi Mangione using AI-powered facial recognition technology? What if nobody shot JFK, his head just did that?

The Use of Conspiracy:

Spend any time online, and you’re bound to run into conspiracy theories. With the rise of social media, they are as prevalent as ever—and seeping offline through the holes in our social fabric. Agreement on the fundamental principles of our shared reality has completely unravelled, and they are now up for individual interpretation; a choose-your-own adventure guided by self-delusion.

Conspiracy theories obscure the engine of capitalism driving the problems of our time. Rather than an economy premised on competition and endless expansion, conspiracies place the blame on shadowy cabals in control of world events and intent upon our destruction.

The crimes of these alleged groups are framed as an aberration from the norm. Their acts are unconstitutional. They are motivated by evil intent. And they operate outside of established power structures.

If only these conspiracies were revealed, the conspiracist thinks, there would be an “aha!” moment, and the populace would rise up to restore the balance. “Admitting the feds are running real-time facial recognition surveillance across the country would spark outrage,” claims the promoter of the Luigi Mangione facial recognition theory. But meaningful change will not come from sudden revelation. Only class-conscious organizing, powered by a unified vision of our shared humanity, will avert our current crises.

Capitalism is the Conspiracy:

The horrors we confront are not an aberration, but are inherent to a system driven by profit. They are the externalities of capitalism; the accumulation of waste from the production process. Our march toward destruction occurs in the open—those pulling the strings are behind no curtain.

Capitalism relies on limitless extraction and combustion, manifesting in rising global temperatures and pollution. Its coercive laws of competition incentivize cost-cutting, resulting in dangerous or low quality products, increased automation, and reduced wages. The reduction of our relations to exchange value—not CIA mind control—drives anti-social violence. Social breakdown is the natural endpoint of a society where the only social responsibility is shareholder value.

This is not to say those holding capital act entirely above board. “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion,” said Adam Smith, “but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.” However, to the extent it does not threaten class power, such behavior is metabolized.

To discipline labor and secure markets, capital frequently resorts to “illegal” state violence. Evidence of conspiracy in third world repression abounds. At home, challenges to power are dismantled by murder, infiltration, deportation, and censorship.

This history should undoubtedly give pause, forcing us to be critical of our surroundings. But we must also be hesitant to accept stories that provide a convenient narrative. The basis for an effective working class movement will not be founded in speculative fiction.

The Point is to Change it:

Instead of ideological supposition, we must focus on material solutions; only these are something we can affect. Delivering upon material needs with guaranteed housing, reliable healthcare, food security, and education, demonstrates the foundations for a new society not only in theory, but in practice. In the words of Matt Christman, “we have the same task whether [conspiracy theories are] true or not. … It is to build new institutions that can reflect organized power.”

The post Against Conspiracism first appeared on Rochester Red Star.

By Freddy R

WALTHAM, MA – Research associates, academic administrators, department coordinators, and academic advisors started 2025 by voting to unionize under SEIU 888 at Brandeis University. Motivated by pay freezes, increased workloads, and layoffs, workers voted 78-6 in January to protect good jobs and address ongoing issues of low wages and burnout in their ranks.

Tensions between workers and management had been simmering for five years. In response to COVID-19, the university paused all merit pay increases for non-unionized workers. While only a small change in total compensation, many workers expected to receive these changes in pay to cover increases in rent or groceries. Meanwhile, management increased workers’ workloads as the pandemic exacerbated issues around low staffing. 

Eventually, workers had enough.

Anger simmers as wage increases flatline

All employees I spoke to expressed understanding of the freezes and workload increase as the pandemic brought a whole host of unforeseen challenges to Brandeis, emphasizing the community-rootedness of their jobs when Brandeis respected them. But as the pandemic came to an end, many workers expected a return to normalcy – including merit pay increases. Management had other plans. Citing financial issues around a lack of postgraduate enrollments, management paused non-unionized staff merit pay increases again until October 1, 2024.

Meanwhile, Brandeis president Ron Liebowitz reportedly failed to meet fundraising expectations, yet eventually won his desired five-year contract with an increased wage, in large part due to a Boston Globe piece centered around a leaked letter. Workers suggested Liebowitz himself provided the letter to counteract the university’s Board of Trustees.

Brandeis University has an endowment of over $1 billion.

The president’s wage increased while others flatlined. Faculty were not sympathetic to the Brandeis president. Despite negotiating for more money with the university’s Board, Liebowitz stepped down from his position on November 1, 2024, after a resounding no-confidence vote from faculty.

A union, a community

Inspired by the long history of unionization at Brandeis and the number of other bargaining units at the University, administrative workers decided to take direct action. Backed by SEIU 888, the workers presented a petition and organized rallies. These actions culminated with workers attempting to deliver the petition to the Brandeis Board of Trustees. Security shoved workers against the wall and forced them from the building during the delivery. Management quietly reinstated the workers’ merit pay raises.

But management wasn’t done. Brandeis cut over sixty administrative staff positions, offering severance packages in exchange for voluntary resignations, shortly after workers submitted their the petition. Workers again stressed that this was a far cry from the Brandeis they had worked for, when Brandeis respected their employees and the community that workers served. These layoffs also exacerbated already present issues of limited staffing and increasing workloads, adding structural factors to simmering anger.

“This is a union; it’s a community.”

Workers began collecting cards for an official union election. They relied heavily on community support, the same whole-worker strategy adopted by teachers in Fitchburg, MA that won their union in the same month as Brandeis workers. Successful organizing required extensive networking and leveraging of social connections in siloed academic workplaces. Much of the organizing at Brandeis was done through hybrid means, with workers describing an intensive effort involving emails, phone calls, and texts to reach colleagues—many of whom they had never met before. Doing so required overcoming fears and challenges associated with digital communication.

Organizers attributed their success not just to the goal of unionizing but to building a sense of community: “This is a union; it’s a community.” The union also benefited from strong support from numerous other unions on campus, which helped push back against anti-union sentiment and fears.

Much of the campaign was also led by women, who coworkers referred to as “badass.”

Management responds with bureaucratic union-busting

Unlike corporations such as Amazon or Starbucks, Brandeis did not launch an aggressive open-air anti-union campaign. The institution instead relied on bureaucratic tools to resist unionization. One tactic involved defining inclusion and exclusion criteria for the bargaining unit. Higher education workers are often the only employees in their respective departments, meaning bargaining unit composition can be contested. For example, museum workers who had signed authorization cards were ultimately excluded for “logistical reasons.”

By late October, 2024, organizers finished collecting signatures. On October 31, they delivered the official election petition to the provost, accompanied by a rally outside the administrative offices. With the petition filed, the focus shifted to boosting voter turnout and maintaining momentum. Again, workers highlighted the crucial support from other unions on campus.

The election took place on December 12, 2024, with 84 workers casting ballots in what turned out to be a landslide victory for the union.

Workers are now faced with, as one worker put it, “the hard part:” bargaining. At the time of interviews in early 2025, workers were currently holding elections for electing a bargaining committee and ensuring that the diverse working conditions of the unit were represented. They will join other unions on campus, like the librarians, whose original contract expired in June 2024.

With this win, Brandeis staff now join a growing wave of unionized higher education workers, showing that when institutions fail to uphold their commitments to staff, collective action can force change. With bargaining on the horizon, workers remain committed to ensuring that the Brandeis they once believed in—a university that values its employees—can be restored.

Freddy Reiber is a PhD student at Boston University researching collective action and technology. He is a member of SEIU 509 and Boston DSA.

T. Sinclair sat down with Bradley Davis, steering member of the Portland Tenants’ Union, which has recently helped win a case where it was ruled $34,000 in illegal rent violations must be paid back to tenants.

TS: Thanks for making time for us today. To start, there’s been some confusion in the local media as to how the Portland Tenants Union (PTU) was established. Some people have said it comes from former Mayor Ethan Strimling’s efforts with the Trelawny Tenants Union. Others have said that you were the founder. And so can you clarify it, how did the PTU get started?

That’s a good question. PTU started last year following my own personal landlord retaliation experience. There were a lot of things that we learned about how the city handles tenant complaints and who has the authority to allege a complaint for somebody else. And something that we were told by the city multiple times is that an individual cannot allege a violation for another individual. So, hypothetically, if I’m living in a building and the building is unregistered and I’m being charged illegal rent and I have all the proof for it and I go to the city and complain about it, I cannot loop in my upstairs neighbor on that complaint.

They would require that person to stick their neck out and go against their landlord and put themselves at risk to even look into the situation. It’s a very anti-tenant perspective. So, we needed to create an organization that can have the legal standing to represent an entire group, we needed to create a citywide tenants union. At the time, I was working with the Portland Local Campaign Committee, an arm of Maine DSA, and all of these issues with tenants’ rights, rent control, and enforcement from the city were stuff that we were all really passionate about. And so we decided to grow it.

TS: Now that it’s established, how does the union operate internally?

We want there to be elected representatives of tenants. We want decision making to be shared with everybody who is a member. In order to make that happen, we currently have a steering committee. I would say there’s roughly a dozen people that have been administering meetings, a large email list, and social media posts reaching over ten thousand. We’re just trying to grow our membership and let people know that the organization exists and that there are people who are fighting for their rights.

Right now, we have three areas of focus for the tenants union. We have a “complaints & research” group, which has been fielding communications that we get from tenants. An “events and membership” group, which is focusing on growing our membership engagement. And finally, a “communications and education” group. This handles a lot of our social media and extends education about tenants rights in Portland.

Our recent win in getting landlords to pay back $34,000 to tenants in rent violations has really helped showcase what we can do when we come together, and right now we’re just hoping to get more people involved.

TS: City Councilor Wes Pelletier recently lamented that it’s been too incumbent upon tenants to challenge rental offenses, and he wants the city to be more proactive. Why do you think a tenants’ union is necessary right now, and in what ways has the City of Portland not been proactive?

The Portland Tenants Union needs to exist right now because there’s been a severe lack of enforcement of rent control and rental registration from the City of Portland in the past five years that rent control has existed. They only hired a dedicated rent control inspector, I believe, in December 2023, which was years after rent control was actually in place. Up until that point, it was 100% on tenants to have to bring forward any sort of rent control violation, and they were sticking their necks out without a union.

Before then, it is very clear that the city was not actively verifying any data points from landlord registration forms. Not only that, they weren’t even doing the math on the forms to see if rent increases were legal. We’ve seen cases where the numbers in the city’s own data are illegal, but the city doesn’t catch it, because they’re waiting on tenants to call them out for it. So, finally this past year, they have started to audit buildings and look at data proactively. I believe they said as of late they’ve gotten through 18% of units, which is far too low for the fact that we are potentially sitting on four plus years of unverified data.

The tenants union needs to hold the city accountable to enforce the laws that its citizens passed. Whether landlords like it or not, rent control passed, was expanded, and was defended in three separate elections, and it is here to stay, it is the will of the people of Portland. We get the sense that the City is not very happy with the rent control laws, that they think they’re too ambiguous, and it seems like they really don’t want to have to go to court to fine a landlord for breaking rent control laws. But at the end of the day that is the city’s obligation, to enforce the laws that its people have put into place. And so our job and our role as we see it is to push the City to be more proactive in their enforcement of rent control.

TS: What are some more serious issues or loopholes you have seen landlords try to exploit? For context: you folks just won $34,000 in back-owed rent for tenants on St. George Street because the landlords were charging illegal fees.

So, additional fees on top of rent are something that we have seen historically over the past few years. And the city has set the record straight on the legality of those fees, but still landlords think they can charge them to get around rent control. They’ll say, “Okay, fine. Your rent is going up the allowable amount, but your parking fee just got raised $300 or now your pet fee is $400 a month.” To some extent there isn’t a lot of clear language on some of those fees.

Pet fees in particular are one thing that we are very interested in. And, we have people reaching out to us even this past week saying that their building just got bought by new owners who are saying to get the units up to market rate they’re gonna be increasing the fees for storage and the driveway and pet fees. And if you opt out of the driveway and storage, then they’re just gonna hike the pet fee anyway, to get to market rates. So it is clear what they’re trying to do.

They are trying to get more profit from their tenants than is allowable by rent control, but at that point it’s on the city to bring down the hammer and say, no, you can’t take advantage of tenants like that.

There’s also hundreds of units in the city with $0 registered rents. Another loophole that we see a lot is the claiming of owner occupied status in order to get exempt from rent control. For example, some will claim a building is owner occupied if a family member lives in the building, which is not considered legally owner-occupied, it has to actually be the owner’s primary residence.

TS: Since the tenant movement has taken off in Portland, we’ve seen tenant movements start to pick up in other places. For example, in Brunswick there’s the Brunswick Renters Organization (BRO), and just recently in Saco there’s been a group starting to organize tenants. For these new burgeoning movements, what advice would you give?

Yeah. I mean, to be fair, I don’t know how qualified we are to give advice since I know BRO is technically older than we are. What I will say in terms of tenant organizing as someone who is not experienced in organizing prior to being thrust into it, unwillingly, I think that it’s important to get people on board with fighting back against the isolation and individualism that living in this capitalist housing system has forced upon us.

The system is designed to keep landlords in charge, to keep tenants alone and having to fight for themselves and thinking that they are in the minority and have no power. And what we and other tenant organizers historically have realized is once we get together and say, “hey, we live here, we are this community, we want our needs to be met,” there is power in that and there is democracy to be had in that. And the more people that you can get on board and the larger coalition you can build, the more power that you get.

Other cities across the country have shown that they are more willing to fight for tenants than the City of Portland. There was a story out of Las Vegas, someone was operating an unregistered AirBnB for multiple years, got multiple violations, and the city council went to court to try and fine him almost a hundred thousand dollars. And because of how the court proceedings went, that fine went through. That is the city council of Las Vegas that went to bat for tenants across the city and put a hundred thousand dollar fine on just one guy operating an unregistered unit. 

There’s also talk in New York City right now of utilizing their structures in place to repossess buildings that are not up to code and put them in the hands of the city and tenants. They are willing to go to bat against landlords that are violating the law, And I would love to see Portland, Maine fight for its community members in even half of that capacity.

TS: Thank you for your time, Bradley, feel free to say whatever you want here to wrap it up and let folks know where to find you.

Folks can follow us on Instagram, @portlandtenantsunion. Come join us for a meeting. We have general meetings on the first Wednesday of every month. People can go to our website, portlandtenantsunion.org, to learn more about their rights as well as sign up to become members of the union. And we are just trying to bring as many people in as we can, to fight for everything that we’ve been talking about.

I think to close it off, and I don’t know if this is gonna be a very good closing statement, but another thing that I’ve been thinking about after reading Abolish Rent, I think that the only path forward for true tenant emancipation is to decouple profitability from housing ownership. For as long as it is profitable to just own a building, tenants will always lose. The only way that tenants win is if housing returns to what it was initially meant to be, a place to live for you and your family to live in community. And as long as the profit motive exists for owning a building, tenants will lose at the end of the day. And we’ve talked about plenty of ways to fight back against that, whether that’s in enforcing rent control, whether that is looking into social housing, which the City of Portland is now starting to do, finding ways to return housing to just a place where people live and not an infinite money glitch because you got lucky in being born with the wealth that you have. That is the end goal.

The post Sitting Down with Portland’s Tenant Union appeared first on Pine & Roses.

by Rob Switzer

Over 10,000 grocery workers from 77 stores struck King Soopers in Colorado last month*; it’s a division of stores owned by Kroger. Like me, they are members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).

A rank-and-file reform caucus called Essential Workers for Democracy (EW4D), which is working to make UFCW more democratic, was in Denver walking the picket lines and delivering daily bulletins to keep workers up-to-date. They flew in several UFCW members from different locals around the country to support their fellow grocery workers. This is how I became one of them!

The story starts with the election in November. Like many people who identify with the Left, I was very deeply invested in seeing Donald Trump lose. Despite how terrible Biden and Harris were on some of the issues — and their membership in a party that props up the system that I believe to be the root of most of our problems — I preferred their victory over a fascist-friendly administration bent on vengeance. So I held my nose and voted for Harris, and advocated that others should as well.

When the unthinkable happened and Trump won, I watched many of my liberal and progressive friends erupt in anger at Trump voters, with disgust for what their country had become. I can sympathize with that to a degree, but my reaction was more one of shame. And anger, yes, but not so much toward Trump voters, but more toward the Democratic establishment. They were running to the right on every issue in order to win. To see them do that and still lose was beyond maddening.

I was fed up. On social media I saw something about a general meeting of “Democratic Socialists of America” just a few days after the election. I immediately identified with their goals and values. I resolved to make it to the next one, and I did. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing: A room of over 100 people not afraid to proudly represent their values and call themselves socialists. And they seemed happy to be there, rather than despondent. I got the sense that it didn’t matter who had just won the election: they’d still be fighting the same fight regardless. There was just a little more work to do now.

I am a union member, and I got involved in the Labor Working Group. I have attended every meeting since. I’ve met many great people, and I’ve been involved in actions supporting striking Starbucks workers, graduate workers, and others. After hearing stories of organizing and activism from others, I started to think about how I could change my own workplace.

I work as a butcher in a UFCW shop. I am very proud to be a union worker and I’m known at work as being very politically conscious and pro-union. Many people at my workplace are critical of the union, and for valid reasons. Yet I sometimes find myself defending the union, or at least the workplace benefits that it has clearly brought us. I have a fair amount of seniority there and am generally respected.

So some time last March, after we lost our shop steward, I was encouraged by several people to sign up for consideration as the next one. Nobody signed up to challenge me. Months passed and I heard nothing from our union officials. On this issue and on our union representation in general, most of my coworkers felt lost and confused. And I did too. I didn’t feel empowered to do anything.

But several months down the line, now a DSA member, I started to think about what I could do to change the situation. I started talking to coworkers. I read the Labor Notes book Secrets of a Successful Organizer. I attended a Labor Notes workshop called “What to Do When Your Union Breaks Your Heart.” I even surveyed my coworkers about whether they supported me becoming steward, and circulated a petition which almost all of them signed without hesitation.

I found my way to getting in touch with Essential Workers for Democracy. I held several Zoom calls with EW4D, and they helped me consider ways to deal with the steward issue and others. I met other disaffected pro-union UFCW workers. Eventually I was invited onto a Zoom call with EW4D leader Steve Williamson. He wanted to hear my story. And afterwards he told me that they were all holed up in Denver, supporting the UFCW workers out there who were on strike. He asked if I wanted to come out.

I did. I arrived on a Monday morning and met with Steve. In the snowy, foggy, below-freezing weather, we drove from picket line to picket line. He would introduce himself, hand out that day’s issue of their bulletin, and just talk to the strikers. He would introduce me. They were always thrilled to hear that a union brother had come all the way from Detroit to support them. We would walk the lines with them, chant with them. Share stories with them.

I learned about the conditions the workers endured over those two weeks on strike: not just the weather but manipulative tactics by Kroger. For example, Kroger unsuccessfully sued to essentially shut down the strike, challenging who strikers could talk to and what they could do, and insisting that they not be allowed to use heaters or heat lamps on the lines. Just the day before I arrived, Kroger had reportedly agreed to the local’s demands, but ultimately reneging on the deal and instead circulating misleading statements blaming the union. I learned firsthand that most of the workers were not buying it. And although many were tired, the overwhelming majority seemed to support fighting on if need be. Their resilience was simply inspiring.

After a full day of visiting the lines, I was brought to the house I would be sharing with other activists. Three of them were members of DSA from around the country, and even knew some of my local comrades! We had lively discussions. I was supposed to stay for several days. But the following morning, we received word that a “Return-to-Work Agreement” had been finally reached, and that the strike was ending immediately.

That day we held a debriefing conference, in which everyone was encouraged to speak. I told them that although it was unfortunate that I came so late, it definitely wasn’t a waste of time for me. I explained that I honestly feel that with every minute I participate in activism — whether it be direct action or even just discussions — I learn something new. And this was a unique and exceptional experience in which I learned an incredible amount in a short time. And I would take those lessons and those skills with me and they could potentially change lives.

I carry those lessons today in my on-going campaign to become shop steward and to otherwise organize my coworkers. I have already seen some of them become more outspoken and encouraged. I will carry those lessons into the labor work I am involved in right now, and even beyond it. I’m even helping with the current campaign to bring rail transit to Corktown in Detroit, which could have a direct impact on my neighborhood.

Activism has become a driving purpose of my life, rather than a side hobby. None of this — my Denver trip and otherwise — would have happened without DSA, and I thank every member of that organization and every activist, everywhere, for leading by example and reminding people like me of the power that we each hold. Solidarity forever!

*Note: this article was written in March 2025.

How I Found Myself on a Picket Line in Denver after 2 Months in DSA was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.