Social movements are a given in a city like LA, an epicenter for social crisis, but only a few historical precedents have been made in these efforts, and those few campaigns that made their gains and changed history forever should be remembered more often. Such as the Mariachi tenant victory in Boyle Heights, 2018. 13 tenants, seven of which were Mariachi performers, campaigned to resist the increase in rent over their Boyle Heights units; it started “when seven of them received notice of rent increases ranging from 60 to 80% –as much as $800 a month increase in one reported case– going into effect April 1.”
Although their effort may seem normal in comparison to other tenant strikes and campaigns, but unlike many the tenants with the support and assistance of Union de Vecinos and Defend Boyle Heights, local tenant social movements won an unprecedented agreement with their landlord. They practiced a kind of updated labor organizing tactic of collective barraging, including direct action tactics such as protesting at the landlord's home, public demonstrations at Mariachi plaza to arouse and mobilize broad community support for the campaign, all culminated in the end into a unique gain: “the 13 tenants reached a 3 ½ year collective bargaining agreement with Frank BJ Turner, who owns the apartment building at 1815 East 2nd Street, a block south of Mariachi Plaza.” (Boyle Heights Beats)
“Under the agreement, the striking tenants will get an immediate rent increase of 14%, then a rent increase of no more than 5% yearly during the duration of the contract. At the end of the contract, the agreement calls for a new round of negotiations between the tenants and the landlord.”
A deal was struck, after the strike had leveraged the tenants a seat at the table with the landlord. Rarely have we seen the tenant unions move to win these kinds of long-term gains, yet it shows the versatility of the tenant movement, and the cultural strength of the communitarian campaign. Although there is much more to be said about the strike, it's just good enough to remember whenever social struggle gets hard, wins like the Mariachi strike can happen, even against the odds.