Laurie Mercier talks with tenant union organizer and Old Mole Joe Clement about Portland Tenants United (PTU) and tenant unionism as a response to the housing crisis. PTU is a tenant union that has grown out of a number of communities and have already helped stop one eviction, as Joe and Laurie discuss. They also talk about PTU's Open House on January 30th from 12:00 - 3:00PM at the SE Lucky Lab on Hawthorne between 9th and 10th.
Joe explains tenant unionism as a direct corollary to historically proven methods of labor unionism: strength of numbers, solidarity and collective action, and direct/material forms power in the landlord-tenant relationship. They also consider how a tight supply of housing doesn't adequately explain where rent increases come from. Joe argues that the provision of housing "as a business" or investment , and the overt or implicit class solidarity between landlords and other BIGGER profiteering interests (like banks, developers, and insurance agencies), is the elephant in the housing-crisis room, and is necessary to consider when assessing rising rents, expensive apartments, displacement, as well as discrimination and retaliation against tenants.
- KBOO