Since December, renters in six apartment buildings in Tacoma have voted to form unions in an effort to negotiate better leases with their landlords.
These tenants represent just a small fraction of all renters in the city. But organizers say the movement is growing and that plans are underway to unionize more buildings and create an organized tenant movement in Tacoma.
“The end goal, and what we’re really striving towards, is showing landlords that Tacoma is a tenant union town,” said Isaac Galvon, who lives in the Marguerite Apartments in Tacoma, which recently voted to unionize along with two other buildings in the neighborhood. “If they want to be here, they’re going to have to deal with tenant unions.”
Of the six Tacoma buildings that have voted to unionize this year, five are owned by a couple that lives in California. The tenants cite numerous grievances related to maintenance and fees — many of which stem from what they describe as a sense of apathy from their "absentee landlords.”
“They only view us as a source of income, as a money pit,” Galvon said. “And we’re people. We live here, we work.”
The renters are demanding that their landlords standardize rent across all units; allow pets at no additional cost; freeze rent increases in all units for two years; respond to maintenance requests in a more timely manner; respect tenants’ right to organize; stop posting notices with renters’ private information on doors; and cease the collection of “extraneous management service fees and fines.”
The landlords have thus far refused to meet the tenants at the bargaining table.