JWJ chapters have long engaged in organizing that extends far beyond union campaigns. In the 2020s, as housing justice, spurred by a growing housing affordability gap, has become more central to movement organizing and as tenant unions have been revived, these community coalition efforts have increasingly incorporated housing concerns. Such is the case in San Francisco. Building on organizing to cancel rent during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2022, Jobs with Justice San Francisco was a major participant in an effort that brought together about a dozen tenant and labor organizations to get the city’s Board of Supervisors to pass a tenant right-to-organize law. Among its provisions, the law protects the right of tenants to form an association, including door-knocking and holding tenant meetings on-site, and requires landlords to meet and negotiate with the association, with fines assessed if these provisions are violated.
Building solidarity across unions and the community is rarely easy. María Moreno, a Jobs with Justice San Francisco leader, notes that it has not been easy to get the mainstream labor movement to ally with JWJ’s coalition of immigrants, workers, and tenants. “One of the biggest challenges this year was aligning labor to march with [the Jobs With Justice] coalition,” she says.
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