2025-09-04 WCU General Meeting
Minutes
Date: 2025-09-04T07:00:00Z
Meeting Minutes
Attendance
Campaign Coordinator: @chima
Membership Coordinator: @HipGnosis
Education Coordinator: @Englishpete08
Treasurer: @Turcotte
Secretary:
Members: @Joanna, @Adri_Martinez, @Robert_H, @Sauc3_L1oron_217, @Techify
Steering Committee Votes
The steering committee pre-approved a $100 expenditure for California’s Business Entity Data to support the tenant union campaign. The data is not a perfect solution because owner names are not included, but it should help identify landlords who own multiple properties through common agent names and mailing addresses for their corporations. The purchase was pending the official renewal of the tenant union campaign.
Calendar Related Agenda
Old Business
Tenant Union Focus Campaign Renewal
We discussed the progress and strategy for the focus campaign the remainder of the year. We went over our current main challenge, which is the risk of becoming a “service organization” that is putting out fires, instead of building long-term relationships with tenants that result in organized tenant associations.
As more tenants with urgent issues reach out to us, we are slipping in following up with previous tenants whose issues are resolved or pending a solution. @Turcotte suggested that dialing back outreach to focus on solidifying the relationships in buildings we are already working in was important.
When asked about barriers preventing more members from canvassing or participating in outreach, responses included stress from other projects, managing time with other projects, and work hours.
Updates from the Tenant Union Campaign
Strategies if campaign is renewed
A. Renew TU FC
@chima motioned to review the tenant union focus campaign until the end of 2025. @Joanna seconded. All voted in favor, besides @Adri_Martinez who was AFK.
Tenant Union Campaign Leadership Votes
B. TU FC Leads
@chima nominated @SeanHun for renewing his position as the Tenant Union Focus Campaign lead and nominated @ckposadas to be the second lead.
Both were voted in via acclamation, with no objections or abstentions.
Know Your Rights Focus Campaign Vote
We discussed whether the KYR initiative should be a full focus campaign or a more limited side-quest. The primary concern was a lack of member capacity to fully implement the original focus campaign proposal, such as facility monitoring and rapid response. The general consensus landed on that we do not have the manpower to do this in the right way.
Ultimately, members decided to treat the KYR work as a side-quest for now. The immediate focus will be on distributing already made materials online and via print, and pairing KYR work with tenant outreach. We will revisit this issue next month.
Current status of KYR Work
C. KYR
@chima motioned to work on the “Currently Working On” materials this month and revisit the focus campaign idea next month. @Sauc3_L1oron_217 seconded. All voted in favor.
Workplace Organizing
We reviewed the “Winning ICE Raid Preparedness Training at Work” toolkit. The strategy is to use a low-risk request for an “ICE raid preparedness training” as a way to identify interested coworkers and start organizing conversations. For WCU, it is also a way for us to get into contact with and build up workplace leaders.
We discussed whether members would be available to conduct the 15-20 minute one-on-one on-boarding calls with workers who request the toolkit. Due to capacity concerns, we decided to put the toolkit online but not advertise it, allowing WCU members or people they already know to try it in their own workplaces.
Toolkit Links
New Business
Side-Quest Proposal: BDS in the Central Valley
There was a lengthy discussion on a proposed BDS campaign. A primary concern was avoiding wasting effort and political dead ends.
There was significant skepticism about engaging with the city council on this issue when we have no leverage besides rhetoric. Members did not want the city council to just ignore us or, worse, co-opt the campaign and pass something that is watered down for publicity. And without a deep enough connection with people showing up, we could lose the messaging battle on that. A lot of these concerns stemmed from our experience of the No Votes for Genocide campaign.
The Port of Stockton was discussed as a key strategic target, not necessarily for divestment, but as a political education tool. The goal would be to expose the port’s commissioners as unresponsive local elites who have their fingers in housing/warehousing, connecting the effects of those wanting to end the genocide in Gaza to local tenant and workplace fights.
BDS in the Central Valley
D. BDS
@chima motioned to move forward on this as a side-quest. The initial steps would be to 1. file a PRA requests to identify city and county investments; 2. develop messaging around the Port of Stockton; 3. gauge public interest with targeted flyers and an online sign up form. We will reevaluate next month based on our results. @Joanna seconded. Unanimous Yes vote; @Techify had left the meeting at this point.
Scheduling Weekly
Members voted to shift scheduling to be moved to weekly when possible, to better accommodate everyone’s schedules.
Weekly Scheduling
E. Weekly schedule
@chima motioned to use Rallly to schedule meetings when possible. @Sauc3_L1oron_217 seconded. Unanimous yes.
Scheduling KYR and Tenant Union Workshops
F. Schedule monthly meetings
@chima motioned to hold KYR meetings 10-12pm and Tenant Union Workshops 12-2pm monthly until the end of the year; this included a $100 budget for food. @Adri_Martinez seconded. Unanimous yes.
Calendar
September 2025
Meeting Week | Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | ||
7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | |
Workplace Organizing | 14 4:00-5:30pm KYR | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
New Member Orientation | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
Organizing Cnnversation | 28 | 29 | 30 |
Non-Calendar Related Agenda
We read a report by @Tanner regarding workplace conditions at the Lodi Unified School District. Tanner described unlivable wages, a negligible pay increase, a hostile superintendent, and a union (CSEA) that is too collaborative with management. Tanner requested WCU’s support through a social media campaign and by having members attend school board meetings in solidarity.
Report from Tanner
G. Supporting CSEA workers
@chima moved to meet with Tanner to talk about how we could help via social media and to set up a phone-in petition to support CSEA workers. @Adri_Martinez seconded. Yes: @Joanna, @Adri_Martinez, @Robert_H, @Sauc3_L1oron_217, @Turcotte, @HipGnosis, @chima; Abstain: @Englishpete08
Voting Record
A. Renew TU FC | B. TU FC Leads | C. KYR | D. BDS | E. Weekly schedule | F. Schedule monthly meetings | G. Supporting CSEA workers | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
@chima | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
@HipGnosis | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
@Englishpete08 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | abstain |
@Turcotte | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
@Adri_Martinez | absent | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
@Joanna | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
@Robert_H | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
@Sauc3_L1oron_217 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
@Techify | Yes | Yes | Yes | absent | absent | absent | absent |
Quorum for Meeting
[(8+9+9+8+8+8+8)/7]/2
= 5
Rolling average
5+6+7+6+5 = 6 (we are missing two months of minutes)
If you have questions about anything, please schedule a quick zoom meeting with a member of the Steering Committee here. We were elected to help Members achieve the goals they voted for, so please don’t hesitate to book a meeting!