The Veritas Debt Strike, Tenant Unions, and Organizing to Win
Featuring:
Jane McAlevey, labor organizer, writer, and scholar
Astra Taylor, co-founder of the Debt Collective; documentarian, writer, and organizer
Bertha Perez, AFSCME Local 3299 leader and City Councilmember in Merced, CA
Juana May, VTA member and striker
Maria Toriche, VTA member and striker
In September 2021, as California’s state government allowed the eviction moratorium to expire, a group of tenants in San Francisco began an unprecedented debt strike to shift the crisis of pandemic debt off the shoulders of working-class people and onto their multi-billion dollar landlord, Veritas Investments.
Join Jobs with Justice SF and the SF Anti-Displacement Coalition for a lively panel discussion on the Veritas Tenants Association (VTA) debt strike, a five-month strike by 50+ tenants that forced SF’s largest landlord to make a choice: Are you going to evict dozens of families during the pandemic, or are you going to negotiate with the VTA and forgive the debt? Learn how the VTA achieved their wins, how a tenant union organizes across hundreds of buildings, and how unions at work and at home are central to building long-term power.
This event will be on zoom and will feature Spanish and Cantonese interpretation.