The rent is too damn high. This problem is about power: who has it and who doesn’t and the distance in between. Something’s gotta give. If we have a chance, the chance lives in the tenant union.
UNION SCHOOL 2026
Union School is an intensive tenant union training, presented by the Tenant Union Federation (TUF). The training, which will take place weekly over Zoom from July to October, covers TUF’s Path to Supermajority, Strike-Ready Tenant Unions.
Trainers from TUF locals—including tenants who have organized their own properties, rent strikers, and members of TUF’s research team—will train on landlord research, scouting, organizing conversations, leadership assessment, blitz, demands, union launch, target analysis, communications, strategy, bargaining, and strikes. Based on feedback from last year, TUF will also offer regular coaching support from experienced organizers.
Union School is a skills training. It is not a training on theory, and it is not a book club. Applicants are encouraged to come with a team of at least three tenants, and participants will be required to pick a property to organize, receiving assignments in each session. If participants make it through the first months of the training virtually, TUF will invite them to participate in our first in-person regional trainings, which will focus on strategy, leverage, and bargaining.
We are a national federation. We take strategic direction from our locals which govern the Federation through an elected leadership team.
