Page 4-Tuesday, July 10, 1979-The Michigan Daily
I .l
SMichigan Daily
Eighty-nine Years of Editorial Freedom
420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI. 48109
Vol. LXXXIX, No. 40-S News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by students
at the University of Michigan
C r controls
can curb inflation
pRESIDENT CARTER'S voluntary wage and
price controls were believed dead after Judge
Barrington Parker's federal District Court ruled
that withholding federal contracts from firms that
violate the guidelines was unconstitutional. The
U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision, which in ef-
fect upheld an appeal which reversed Parker's
ruling, will give Mr. Carter an avenue to ensure
that his guideines won't be ignored.
While awaiting a ruling from a federal Court of
Appeals, the Carter administration announced the
denial of government contracts to Amerada Hess
Corp. of New York, and the cement division of
Ideal Basic Industries of Denver, two firms that
did not comply with Mr. Carter's voluntary
guidelines. The appellate court ruled in favor of
the president's constitutional authority to enforce
his voluntary anti-inflationary program. Labor
leaders then appealed that decision to the
Supreme Court. The high court declined to hear
the case, thus allowing the Court of Appeals
decision to stand.
The wage guidelines have been denounced by
labors leaders as unfair to workers. Businesses,
meanwhile, complain that rising costs and labor's
wage demands compel them to levy commen-
surate price hikes. While the dilemmas facing
both groups are appreciated, the short-sighted
remedies they request do little to heal economic
troubles.
But Mr. Carter's voluntary controls could curb
inflation somewhat if they were heeded, and he
should have the power to enforce them through
contracts.
While consequences of the voluntary
guidelines are quite unpleasant, the alternatives
forbode even deeper problems.
Now that the Supreme Court has deemed accep-
table Mr. Carter's power to award contracts
selectively, federal contractors and wage-earners
may feel an economic motive to fight inflation.
Rent strike is potent
weapon against landlords
"Blacks want power, s
want power, but tenan
power"
-Ron Glotta, rea
It was fall semester and
season in 1975 when 100,
in Michigan Stadium
distracted from watch
"Blue Machine" by the so
low-flying engine ov
Wolverine fans enjoyed t
of a helicopter circli
stadium with a banner "
ds Love Bucks-Rent
Soon."
The pun on the Ohio Sta
and the jab at local landlc
organized by the Ann
Tenants Union to pub
massive rent strike in An
That fall and winter,
joined the Tenants Union
order to improve housi
ditions and fight for cc
bargaining recognition
dlords.
THE STRIKE was cc
largely of pockets of ter
five different landlords
including Trony Ass
Reliable Realty, S
Hamilton, Traver Kno
Longshore Apartments.'
received substantial
reductions from these la
through court trials that
out evidence showini
violations in the buildings
Seven years earliera
larger rent strike occu
Ann Arbor. Between 1,
2,000 tenants went on
against local landlords.
point the striking
organized a massive wit]
of student accounts from
Arbor Bank on South Un
in protest against what th
ts saw as mishandling o
nishment order to han
withheld rent money.
Similar to the 1968
tenants received rent rei
in a majority of the cour
Of the 500 court cases f
tion, nine out of ten of th
before juries won rent
tions.
A rent strike is often init
one or more tenants bec
dissatisfaction with th
ditions of rental units. TI
students
its have By PATRICIA THEILER
nt strike
lawyer to withhold rent because of poor
conditions was granted to tenants
I football by the tenants rights act of 1968.
000 fans The slum conditions of Detroit
were and the Detroit uprising by the
ing the blacks in 1967 documented the
iund of a need for better housing.
erhead. Legislators drafted the tenants
he sight rights act to allow tenants to
ing the assert the deplorable conditions
Landlor- of their homes as defense for rent
Strike withholding. Poor maintenance
conditions are not specific to
te team Detroit, however. During the,
irds was Trony strike (1975-76), George
Arbor Gardner, Director of the city's
licize a Building and Safety Engineering,
n'Arbor. stated that 35 to 55 per cent of the
tenants buildings inspected in Ann Arbor
(TU) in had serious fire and safety
ng con- hazards. Gardner presented
llective these facts at the Mayor's Fair
by lan- Rental Practices Committee in
December, 1975. While landlords
imposed and city administrators ignored
nants of these statistics, tenants went on
in town strike to legally assert their right
ociates, to safe housing.
ummit- According to Don Greenspon,
ll, and attorney who represented the
Tenants striking tenants at Taver Knoll
rent during the 1975 strike, the rent
indlords strike was successful on several
brought levels. "The publicity on how
g code many tenants were on strike, how
much money in settlements by
an even tenants, and the conditions of the
rred in premises showed landlords that
000 and they would have to keep premises
strike up to code or face court action
At one like Esther Synder (landlady at
tenants Traver Knolls)."
hdrawal The publicity also made tenan-
the An- ts more conscious of the
iversity possibility of rent striking as a
e tenan- means to force landlords to make
f a gar- repairs. Although there are not
id over presently any massive strikes
such as the 1975 strike, Green-
strike, spon frequently hears of rent
ductions strike threats by tenants. These
t cases. threats can take the form of
or evic- petitions or door-to-door
ie cases organizing in rental units with
reduc- poor maintenance. The landlords
are fearful of rent strikes
iated by because of the precedent set by
ause of earlier strikes and often agree to
e con- dissatisfied tenant demands.
he right
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Local landlords have the ad-
vantage of the transient nature of
tenants in town. The Traver Knoll
strike was unusual because there
were people who had lived there
for five, seven, and eight years.
These people who live in a place
longer area able to see the
deterioration and are more likely
to exercise their striking powers
where a new tenant who moves
into a place can't see the neglect
of the building in terms of past
maintenance.
Another problem is that even
when an agreement is reached,
tenants must be willing to exert
pressure in order to enforce the
settlement. All too often, once an
agreement expires, there are
new tenants living in the building
who are unaware of the need to
enforce the work of past tenants.
"The collective action of tenan-
ts has always been the best en-
forcer of settlement," says
Greenspon. "Without the
organized tenants to enforce the
agreement by imposing the
threat of strike, we have to rely
on the courts for enforcement.
This is an unfortunate
arrangement since the courts
haven't helped us much anyway.
We won most of our past cases by
demanding jury trials."
Greenspon compared the at-
titude of workers in a labor union
with those of tenants in a tenants
union: "In labor unions if there's
serious or multiple violations,
workers can strike. If there are
individual violations, they have a
grievance procedure. . . . People
aren't likely to say, well, I'm
going to work somewhere else;
tenants, however, will say, well,
things are bad I'm going to
move."
The absence of a strong voice
by tenants,in their own name is
detrimental to one goal set by
both massive rent strikes in the
past: the recognition of the
Tenants Union as a bargaining
agent for tenants in town. The
power of negotiation by tenants
with landlords could include
issues such as rent increases and
the providing of new housing in
addition to enforcing maintenan-
ce agreements.
However, as tenants move
from building to building, real
estate speculators and landlords
have a few restraints keeping
them from raising rents and
ignoring the need for maintenan-
ce. The same housing problems
will plague new tenants unless
tenants exercise the rights they
already have through the 1968
Tenants Rights Act. Withholding
rent because of lack of repairs is
the only legal defense a tenant
has to assert economic pressure
on landlords. A rent strike,
whether done individually or
collectively, for the purpose of
achieving repairs is the first step
toward tenants gaining more con-
trol over their housing situations.
Patricia Theiler is media
coordinator with the Michigan
Student Assembly Housing
Law Reform Project.
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