DETROIT—For Teresa McCormick, the dream of a peaceful retirement in a community with her peers quickly soured. When she moved into the River Pointe Towers on Detroit’s east side this past April, she looked forward to potlucks in the community kitchen and gatherings in the outdoor space. Instead, she found a building where the community kitchen has been shuttered, cockroaches are a constant battle, and threats of eviction hang in the air for those who dare to complain.
“I was thinking, we’ve got to do something about this,” McCormick said at Monday’s press conference outside the building. She was joined by two dozen other tenants’ union members who stood out front with signs pledging to fight back against corporate landlordism. “That ain’t right!” they chanted.
“We reached out to the Detroit Tenants Union to assist us and help us organize to fight back,” she said. And fight back they have. In August, McCormick and a group of her neighbors stood shoulder-to-shoulder outside their building at 800 Dickerson Ave. to announce the formation of the River Pointe Towers Tenants Union, a new chapter of the Detroit Tenants Union (DTU).
They are taking on their New York-based corporate landlord, Capital Realty Group, demanding a collective bargaining agreement that contains, at minimum; pest control, fair leases, a working system for repairs, and basic safety and security. Their action places them on the front lines of a groundbreaking, multi-state tenant campaign that is showing working-class people how to build power from the ground up to challenge big real estate and corporate landlords.
From bargaining to backlash
Initially, the DTU campaign yielded immediate results. The day after their August press conference, Capital Realty’s owner, Moshe Eichler, traveled to Detroit, leading to a bargaining meeting on August 27. Tenants met with regional management again in early September, hopeful that dialogue would lead to change.
But now, the tenants report that the landlord’s promises have given way to a campaign of retaliation and intimidation. Instead of resolving chronic pest infestations, broken systems, and delayed repairs, tenants say management has engaged in harassment and disruptive maintenance work targeted at outspoken union members. Whether in a workplace or an apartment building, union busting is the preferred tactic for management to try to break up worker power.
Faced with this backlash, the River Pointe Towers Tenants Union is now calling on the Detroit City Council to launch a formal investigation into Capital Realty Group for what they describe as “retaliation, neglect, and mismanagement.”
“The River Pointe Towers Tenant Union met in good faith to address these problems, but management’s response has been retaliation, not repair,” said Steven Rimmer, lead organizer with DTU.
“They are trying to retaliate against the union members and are not responding to maintenance requests or work orders,” Walter Welch, a River Pointe resident, told People’s World. “It seems they are avoiding those of us who joined the union, and that ain’t right.”
The approach from management at Capital Reality Group is part of a larger, deliberate anti-union strategy taken straight from the union-busting playbook of big business.
The tenants’ union’s demands are for Capital Reality to return to the bargaining table and negotiate with the union an immediate resolution of all maintenance and pest issues, an end to all retaliation, and formal recognition of their right to organize.
National pattern of neglect
The struggle at River Pointe is not an isolated case. Just weeks before the Detroit press conference in August, seniors at a Capital Realty-owned building in New Haven, Connecticut, formed their own union. Since then, tenants in Louisville, Kansas City, and Billings, Montana, have followed suit.
Together, through the Tenant Union Federation (TUF), they represent over 1,000 households collectively demanding accountability from the big business duo, Moshe Eichler and Sam Horowitz. Their firm owns a staggering 14,000 units of federally subsidized housing across 28 states. This cross-country renter solidarity marks one of the first times in modern history that tenants are engaging in coordinated bargaining against a corporate landlord across state lines.
For the seniors at River Pointe, this national context proves their struggle is not a “local management failure,” but a feature of the capitalist model that treats renters as profit streams—not human beings with the right to dignity and equitable housing.
“We’re nothing but an income source for them,” Welch said. “We need to put people before profits.”
“But we are not alone and our situation isn’t isolated,” he continued. “I just got back from Kansas City at the Tenants Union Federation Convention. Seven different unions across five states have now organized against Capital Reality Group. And they treat us all the same. But we’re stronger together.”
AJ, a two-year resident, told People’s World that the presence of the union at the building has been a beacon of hope for the tenants. “This will help the building and help us move into a better living environment for all residents. The union helps people feel comfortable and not feel scared.”
Building power in face of intimidation
The tenants’ fight has already drawn political support. Earlier this year, Detroit City Councilmember Latisha Johnson pledged to block any new tax abatements for Capital Realty in Detroit until they address the tenants’ concerns.
“You’re not just fighting for better conditions in this property, but you are showing the city of Detroit how to come together and make sure that tenants’ rights are upheld,” Johnson said.
The courage of the River Pointe tenants is a microcosm of a larger movement brewing in Detroit. As rents soar and corporate landlords neglect repairs, the Detroit Tenants Union is building a citywide, tenant-led movement.
“We won’t fold and we won’t break,” said Welch, with several of his neighbors joining in. “This is our space!”
The national campaign against Capital Realty proves that collective action and unity by working-class people are the most powerful force when harnessed. For the tenants involved, by uniting across the country, they are transforming their status from isolated individuals into a collective force with real power. Now, as they face down retaliation and call for a city investigation, the seniors of River Pointe Towers are demonstrating that the fight for working-class dignity continues.
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