We had our All Members Meeting last month with a special focus on our branches in the North of Greater Manchester. It was well attended and our new committee chair, Muel, made sure the event was relaxed and fun!
There were a number of replacements and additions to the GMTU committee, who work extremely hard volunteering their time, enthusiasm and skills in the pursuit of housing justice and power for renters. Our thanks go to the outgoing secretary, Chris Moore who has held the role for the last 3 years and will be replaced by Ish, previously secretary of South & Central Branch. In addition to Muel and Ish, we also have two political officers – Amira and Elliot joining the team.
Northern Exposure
Mark from Rochdale Branch reported on the ongoing Save 7 Sisters campaign and said that although great progress has been made there is still much to do. They are now working with architects Unit38 devising a community plan for the estate.
Emma from Harpurhey Branch talked about the B-Line “pay-as-you-feel” cafe that they run and how useful it is for reaching out to tenants with issues in the area. The branch have had a recent disrepair win against Northward Housing.
Middleton Branch have been challenging Riverside Housing over the huge amount of disrepair in their proerties. They called for support to pressure Riverside into making a favourable compensation agreement with tenants.
The Best of the Rest
There’s plenty happening in other branches too. South & Central Branch members highlighted their regular socials and events – a useful bonding exercise which they feel makes the branch stronger. Last month they went on a walk through the Peaks in Glossop.
Levenshulme & Longsight Branch are focusing on recruiting new members at the moment and are planning a doorknocking campaign with a new leaflet. They have taken into consideration the different communities in their area and have added Polish, Romanian, Urdu and Arabic translations to the text.
Hulme Branch haven’t given up on Block the Block yet and with the help of the Public Interest Law Centre brought a legal challenge against Manchester City Council – see the video on our YouTube channel here.
Motions Passed
Three motions were passed at this AMM.
Levenshulme & Longsight Branch, who are currently investigating and campaigning against SpareRoom, submitted a motion noting that a large proportion of our members are on benefits. SpareRoom provides a service to landlords that allows them to discriminate against tenants on benefits. GMTU resolved to mobilise union members to attend actions as part of the campaign and committed £150 to support campaign events.
South & Central Branch called upon GMTU to support the campaign “Save Ryebank Fields”. Ryebank Fields is public land that was gifted to MMU under covenant for educational purposes only. The University abandoned Ryebank Fields in 1996 and the land has naturally re-wilded into a richly biodiverse wildlife haven. Developers Step Places and Southway Housing Trust are planning to build expensive housing on the site which will include only 20% affordable units. GMTU resolved to publicly support the campaign and to work with the residents who are fighting to save Ryebank Fields as a greenfield site, and to convince MMU that ‘not one blade of grass’ must be interfered with on this beautiful naturally rewilded reserve.
Member Solidarity Officer, Conor Mcgeown submitted a motion on lodgers rights, noting that lodgers have very limited occupation rights, including no protection from eviction, exclusion from deposit protection and exclusion from rights to repairs. Lodgers are also excluded from rights under the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, and landlords exploit these limited rights. GMTU resolved to fight for lodgers’ rights to be enshrined within written law and raise awareness of the limited legal protections for lodgers.
Last But Not Least!
Comms Officer Jade spoke about our brand new radio show, Renters’ Radio featuring our members discussing real renting problems, political analysis, chat and a bit of music too.! The first episode was broadcast on STEAM Radio on Friday 12th June at 2:00pm – you can listen to the recording of the first episode here and future shows will go out on 2nd Friday of every month on STEAM.
Conor from the Member Solidarity Team spoke about our new monthly Housing Rights Sessions – an alternative to our online support request form, which gathers together members and non-members to plan solutions to renting issues. The meeting takes place on the first Saturday of each month at a different venue in Greater Manchester each time to hopefully provide as much coverage as possible. Keep your eyes peeled for details on email, WhatsApp and our social media channels. We think it’s going to be effective and successful!
Finally a massive Thank You to Zam Zam, a Middleton member who provided the extensive spread of mouthwatering food for us all on the day – those falafels were truly amazing!
The next of these large meetings will be our Annual General Meeting around October time (date to be confirmed). Don’t forget – these meetings are open to all members – look out for notifications for the next one on email, WhatsApp and social media from September.
