Castlemilk members had a huge win of an:
- Area wide 75% service charge rebate over two years negotiated by members
- Replacement and repair of rotten fencing underway
- Dispute over Land Ownership and Fly-tipping progressed
At the beginning of this year Castlemilk Living Rent only had a couple of members on the Cressdales and Downcraig Road, who are tenants of Home Group; landlord to 120 homes locally.
Those members started an inspiring campaign to negotiate a rebate on service charges paid without services being provided during the pandemic, the replacement and repair of rotten fencing, and to settle a dispute over land owned Home Group that had become a fly-tipping hotspot.
Over the last six months those members have:
- Held a massive community meeting to vote on demands
- Rallied the majority of neighbours behind their demands and built union membership
- Taken action and elected and prepared a member negotiating team
- Entered two rounds of collective bargaining with Home Group senior management
- Won the majority of their demands and showed their neighbours that collective action gets the goods!
This isn’t just a victory for our members in their corner of Castlemilk; it’s an example for how social tenants can organise independently, and insist on collective bargaining, not arms’ length customer servicing controlled by the Housing, to resolve their issues.
