Ruth Gilbert
@ruth_gilbert
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solidarity// trade union organising// national campaigns chair @living_rent // histories from below @workersstories
Glasgow
Joined July 2011
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I know this discourse is thankfully near dead but Emma Stone including a ‘thank you England’ in an acceptance speech for her Poor Things award is - in fact - a hate crime
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@matildakdavies
Why is Catherine Owen, a lecturer in ‘entrepreneurship’ being asked for her comments on industrial action here? Really weird that she keeps popping up to give expert analysis on strike action taking place at her friends businesses!
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I moved out of this damp flat 1 month ago & the rent has increased 66%! We need rent controls tied to the property, not the tenancy (as proposed in the bill) but also tied to QUALITY, and the bill has no answers there yet.
Join
@Living_Rent
to fight for the right rent controls.
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Having a second home half an hour from your other home for trips to the theatre? And getting out the tiniest violin for reasonable and long overdue regulations and paying appropriate tax on this property? Jesus wept.
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From the river to the sea. Solidarity and freedom to the people of Palestine from Glasgow.
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@redrumlisa
If this thought pattern is anything to go by you’re going to need a lot of luck with that book you are writing
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We’re out in defence of our neighbours. 1400 people in Glasgow are at risk of eviction from Mears due to home office fast tracking. Living Rent won’t let that happen. Join the fight and join
@living_rent
We defend each other, by any means necessary ✊
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If you are having a bad week just remember you’re not writing scab client journalism attacking low paid workers and organisers for the Murdoch press, climbing the greasiest of poles in the most shameless and embarrassing way possible 🫠
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So either they are selling up (if landlordism is so unappealing) to someone who is going to live there, or these 22k rental properties are sitting empty. Which is it?
22k rental properties have been removed from market in Scotland. 6.4%. Asked why 83% said “perceived hostility towards landlords from gov/politicians”
@timesscotland
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Comrades and heroes.
Pro-Palestinian protestors caused £600k worth of damage to weapons factory
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Is there another sector where trade union members are so willing to proudly declare every single time they choose to undermine their colleagues action? Why are they like this?
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Happy housing bill publication day to every
@Living_Rent
member and every
@living_rent
member only, this is a day we should all take pride in. There’s a lot to build on this summer and we are getting organised to go win every inch of power back. Up the fucking union 🫡🌱
This morning, the Scottish government finally published their bill to introduce permanent rent controls.
Make no mistake, this would not have happened without the work of organised tenants.
The devil is in the detail and we are combing through it now. Stay tuned.
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Big show of strength for the most iconic picket line in the west end - all power to
@UNISON_UofG
@UniteUoG
@UCUGlasgow
-
@UofGVC
your workers aren’t going anywhere ⏰
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About 8 years ago after my papa died I found this letter written on behalf of his mother offering to pay her housing benefit arrears in lemonade bottles. Think
@luxa_rosemburg
wanted to get it framed for the
@WestGap
office. That shopfront’s a bubble tea shop now, & so it goes :)
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I spoke to BBC Scotland this morning on the extension of the (partial) PRS rent cap and the need for robust rent controls to bring already obscene rents down. Listen from 1.35 and join
@living_rent
The markets won’t solve the housing crisis, we will.
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The breakthrough on rent controls has come directly from years of hard graft and community organising from
@Living_Rent
- None of this is gifted from on high. Our members and staff are the best in the game and when we aim to win we mean it.
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Huge turnout by
@Glasgow_LR
to defend Pierette who is living with extreme and intolerable mould. We defend each other! Shame on you
@1_2_Let
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Living Rent is today launching a vital campaign to fight the crisis of damp and mould. We know many of our members and tenants across Scotland are living in conditions which risk our health. Please take a minute to share and fill out a report if affected. We defend each other ✊
Last year, Wheatley Homes admitted that they had had over 3,300 complaints of mould and damp in their properties.
No one should be living with damp and mould.
That's why we are fighting back.
Report your mould and damp!
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This Barbie is skint, this Ken has had enough. Fair pay for college staff now on the EIS and
@unisonscot
Further Education Picket at Kelvin College Springburn. ✊🔥✊
@_Mzza_
@tinoclark651
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I spoke to
@libby_brooks
on why temporary measures are not enough to undo decades of harm caused by the private rented sector in Scotland. With the housing bill due this summer,
@Living_Rent
continues to fight for a robust, permanent system of rent controls to bring rents down.
Private tenants in Scotland face ‘big rent rises and mass evictions’ from April
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An entire generation of organisers across workplaces and communities in every continent are forever indebted Jane McAlevey. What a wonderful, fearless, and deeply principled person 💚
I've just posted some important personal and professional news about my health crisis on my website. please read and share with relevant folks in our struggle for justice. My best to you all--
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@matildakdavies
She also spent a significant amount of time and energy undermining the action of workers at Glasgow’s Saramago earlier this year, but I’m sure a journalist of your calibre and integrity would know that.
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Genuinely repulsed by some in the labour movement this week, the sycophancy and endorsement of a Labour leadership tripping over itself to support war crimes and mass suffering. Some need to take a long look inward as Gaza is flattened by the hour. It’s grotesque beyond measure.
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As others have said that elected reps in the greens who’ve worked alongside Maggie for years haven’t offered any public support of her entirely correct analysis is pathetic
As a prominent campaigner for a peaceful and long-lasting solution to the Palestinian-Israeli crisis, earlier this week I shared a post on the social media platform X that sought to widen the context of the tragedy unfolding in Gaza.
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The reason the housing bill is even at stage 1 is due to the hard graft of
@Living_Rent
If you’re not a member yet, it’s a good day to join, pay your dues and join the fight for real rent controls. If you’re a member & can afford to up your subs, do it:
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abortion is healthcare, and people attending healthcare appointments should be able to do so without threat of harassment. There’s nothing civil about intimidating patients at the door of a clinic.
I know I won't be popular for questioning this but abortion is more than a health issue. It's an ethical and moral one too, whether people want it to be or not. Which is why it's always controversial. And there should be a place for civil debate about it.
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An ever serious publication, Herald editors take no issue with their hacks referring to landlords as ‘property providers’, an interesting escalation from last week’s ‘housing providers’
See also ‘real estate experts’
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A pointless excuse for a Labour Party, remarkably braindead, hopeless, devoid of vision. Rent controls are the first step to ending the housing crisis.
In Scotland join
@Living_Rent
to hold ScotGov’s feet to the fire on the rent controls promised by the end of this Parliament.
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Has anyone written anything on the rise of proud scabbing in academia? There was a time when folks were embarrassed enough to conduct this behaviour privately, silently, without hand wringing self important 1/145 thread tweets and press coverage!
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A beautiful banner
@GsaUnison
honouring the 40 years of (NALGO and) UNISON organising in Garnethill. The banner designed by GSA artist Megan Park honours the history of women’s labour & those who lead from the front to win recognition, from Catherine Stephenson to Kathy Molloy 💚
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If you’ve been flat hunting at all recently in Scotland’s cursed private sector you’ll know that many landlords have near doubled rents in some instances between tenancies.
The rent cap only applies to in-tenancy rent increases. There is no restriction on rent increases for new lets. As a result, landlords are hiking rents for new lets to compensate
Rents for new lets increased by 16% over the past year, according to HomeLet
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I hope UCU comrades will really celebrate this huge victory. Power to every member who stood firm on freezing picket lines and during marking boycotts for years to win back your pensions, especially precarious members. USS should never have tried this theft but what a result.
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On budget day what Scotland needs is a serious, non vibes-based strategy to the housing emergency, and a rapid injection of political will.
@Living_Rent
continues to set the vision regarding actionable demands:
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Tenants facing a potential 12% rent hike (for those who were lucky enough to even be covered my the temporary and partial cap) is an absolute disgrace. In pursuit of whose rights were you given that lucrative ministerial post
@patrickharvie
?
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I would like to see the receipts for what the girlboss STL landlords are paying their cleaners, who likely travel a significant distance to get to work on account of those girlboss markets pricing then out of living anywhere near where they work :)
Live, laff, love, landlord
@SaveSCScotland
@cllrcammyday
Let's not forget many STLs are run by women. A lot of cleaners are also women. Many of the guests I host are single women travellers seeking a safe space.
Many women chose to do this work because it fits around child care or other care duties.
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Strike days should be this joyful - total solidarity with these powerful women fighting for what they deserve. Pay them
@COSLA
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We’ve all got a not insignificant set of novara articles on sturgeon’s tenure and achievements to follow. Just be patient dear comrades, the cringe will be bountiful.
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Southside strong at Annette St and Cuthbertson primary schools this morning
@unisonscot
fair pay now ✊
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This is a remarkably brave and important testimony to have given in the face of ongoing harassment and bullying. Solidarity with those affected.
BREAKING
#MeTU
video: Shocking evidence of bullying and harassment by GMB General Secretary
DEMONSTRATE on International Women’s Day, Friday March 8, 8:30am at GMB Head Office in London, 22 Stephenson Way, NW1 2HD
#CantBuyMySilence
#WeBelieveHer
@meTU
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A mortgage paid in full by the wages of your tenant. Upkeep of the property from the wages of your tenant, no contribution from you. All that and 100 to spare for whatever you choose, paid for from the wages of your tenant. Sounds like a raw deal right enough.
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It’s been a long two months since Rutherglen has it not. The very fucking least we should expect as a movement is to stop chapping doors for those who wear their war crimes fetish on their sleeves.
Scotland’s two Labour MPs will not support the SNP’s calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.
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I hope every elected rep who supported this and every career politician hoping to follow in their greasy footsteps never sleeps again. Utter barbarism and despair is the legacy they’ll leave.
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Slashing the housing budget during a housing and homelessness emergency must be very hard while tallying up those healthy pension contributions, yes. Who can say if Ross campaigned while leaning heavily on Living Rent’s 2021 tenants manifesto.
This was by far the most difficult budget process in
@scotgov
's history. Westminster's economic incompetence and sweeping public service cuts have forced difficult choices, but we have prioritised people and planet.
For the
@Daily_Record
📰
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Looking forward to the Glasgow launch of
@_isaacrose
new book and discussion with
@NeilGray00
, a vital analysis of capital’s hollowing out of our cities and the grassroots organising needed to reclaim them. Supported by
@Living_Rent
. Come along! Tickets:
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They could double the population by building good quality public housing though couldn’t they. Glasgow doesn’t need another build-to-rent luxury development.
Glasgow City Council is aiming to double the population living in the city centre to 40,000 over the next 10 or so years
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We must fight the scourge of post modernism with rape apologism, apparently.
Following the Rochdale by-election, Eben Williams outlines the credentials of the winner, George Galloway, and why communists should lend their support to him 🤝🗳️
@georgegalloway
@WorkersPartyGB
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This just gets worse. Total solidarity to the sister speaking out and shame on every ‘trade unionist’ enabling and covering up for this behaviour. What is the end reward for a movement built on this exactly?
New depths of misogyny plumbed by
@GMB_union
. Unbelievable this vile behaviour is coming from a trade union. If you want to get involved in doing something about this DM us here or email metuwomen
@gmail
.com.
#webelieveher
#cantbuymysilence
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All power to UNISON members rejecting the pay offer and to those staff in thousands of schools across Scotland ready to strike again this winter if Cosla and Scotgov continue down this path.
BREAKING: Unison members have voted for further strike action in Scotland's schools.
More than 89% of members voted to reject Cosla's latest pay offer, with strike dates to be announced in the coming days.
Story to follow
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Have we considered the impact of unregulated STLs on single mothers paying upwards of 50% of their incomes on PRS rents? This is getting laughably braindead.
This is conducive with females being able to fit the operation of their business around child-care and other responsibilities.
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Feminism is when women aren’t held to account for endorsing a genocide.
My statement about Labour women being threatened, intimidated or having their offices vandalised:
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Incredible couple of days in Barcelona with tenants unions and organisers from across the world
@CanBatllo
@SindicatLloguer
very blessed to be amongst such energising comrades 💚
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Jesus Christ almighty
Disgraceful that our members are being attacked at their place of work.
Utterly shameful and should be condemned by all.
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That’ll happen when you’ve got landlords on that Labour front bench, won’t it.
37 MSPs, including Fergus Ewing, three of Labour's front bench (of which one is Edinburgh MSP, Daniel Johnson), and the Scottish Tory party have signed a joint letter to Humza Yousaf demanding a further delay to the short-term let licensing deadline
Yousaf said no this week
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Timely report on the impact of the cost of housing on women in Scotland, especially given certain landlords this weekend claiming the real crisis lies with very reasonable and long overdue regulations on Short Term Lets.
📢 LAUNCHED: Our final Women’s Survey 2023 report is here!
🏘️ Women's experiences of housing and its cost 🏘️
🙍♀️ Hear from women in Scotland about their housing, its cost, and what would help improve their experiences.
Access the report here ⬇️
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@beauvoirbaddie
It’s a Discourse on this website about twice a year. Studies show folks who get the most offended by not being addressed by their title tend to also be allergic to a picket line.
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We need an Edinburgh-specific term for the form of late stage capitalism that facilitates STL landlords who’ve paid for blue ticks asking for Equality Impact Assessments to Air BnB their second homes for circa 20k a month in the month of august during a housing crisis 🫠
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Living Rent is a tenants’ union, how many times must we say it 🫠
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If I fucking speak
Scottish Government announces massive cut in housing budget as homelessness rises
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this job share was advertised as a 22 month contract 🫠 Just an incredibly cynical way to treat workers organising around casualisation and precarity amongst the membership, essential work which that membership voted to continue last month. Solidarity to them.
🚨BREAKING🚨
Redundancy notices have been served on two fixed-term
#PGRsAsStaff
Unite members. Their project was endorsed, extended & expanded at
#ucucongress23
but the employer has refused to withdraw the redundancy notices despite repeated requests. 1/2
#NoRedundancies
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Between them the cats have figured out how to open various previously secure cupboard doors in the flat and during the day in my absence they remove various objects and place them menacingly around the house. I invited this unholy alliance into my home.
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It’s not an ‘extra’ 80 million when the budget was already slashed by 200m at the end of last year. That’s a 120 million cut. Be serious.
Extra £80m to bring properties into use as affordable housing
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Reading the tweets of certain elected reps: what do yous think your reward will be for being this spineless and embarrassing.
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Life in Scotland is profoundly fucking miserable for so many who are suffering without enough food and heating or a secure place to live: and yet these people are writing these threads willingly!!!
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If his ‘business’ depends on evicting tenants to hike rents maybe he should get a real job? Or stop enjoying luxury pursuits like ‘socialising’ and ‘fresh vegetables’ to afford his 7 mortgages 😉. Parasitic, irresponsible market speculation is entered into at one’s own risk 🎻
‘I’ve got seven properties I’m losing money on month by month’
This landlord tells Newsnight that the upcoming abolition of no fault evictions has caused some landlords to issue them now amid rising mortgage rates
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Live in Govanhill? Had enough of the grift (and the sub-Unherd commentary about the grift) and just want to get involved in building real power and winning material change in your community? come along to Govanhill Living Rent AGM tonight.
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Measures in place are confusing & difficult to enforce. Ultimately the tribunals process should prevent increases <12% but the onus is on tenants to 1. know this and 2. scrap for their rights.
@Living_Rent
members will organise hard to defend each other.
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a TU should be setting the standard for terms and conditions amongst its own employees, nevermind how deeply unserious this looks from a TU that’s been specifically organising around casualisation for years. And these workers have led that organising 🫠. Sort it out
@ucu
Regrettably the redundancy notices issued to our two members who lead UCU's
#PGRsAsStaff
campaign leads have not, as of this evening, been withdrawn. We were left with no option but to open our consultative ballot on taking action.
We urge members to vote yes.
#NoRedundancies
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Congrats to Lochend Living Rent members launching their branch following a massive win of £18 million investment in block retrofits - that’s real community power won through hard graft on the ground and no shortcuts. Can’t wait to see what this branch does next 💫
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Good to see coverage of the often exploited loopholes in the current (temporary, partial) PRS emergency rent freeze, but with the cap ending in March 24 and no clear timeline for robust rent controls there’s a real cliff edge coming.
Join
@Living_Rent
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‘The future of build-to-rent is female’ T-shirts incoming!
Feminist urbanism should obviously include a serious strategy for public housing, but who am I to point out that this vacuous, thick-as-pigshit nonsense 🫠
Feminist urbanism (aka Feminist town planning) can improve the city's places and spaces for everyone - find out more 👉
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The Burrell Collection just accepted musuem of the year while
@glasgowlife
threaten 100 jobs across its arts and museums spaces. For shame. These cuts are appalling for workers and for the city. Stand with
@unison_glasgow
the next two Saturdays 👇
Glasgow City Council are shredding museum services quicker than a Banksy auction!
30% of jobs to go in Museum Collections section of 100 workers.
Trade union protests on Sat 29 July, 12noon, at Burrell Collection and Sat 5 August, 12noon, at GOMA.
Defend Glasgow's museums!
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The FM should know the difference between controls & a temporary rent cap which only applies in existing private tenancies, not at all between tenancies, & has never applied in the social sector. We await your government’s vision for robust rent controls that bring rents down.
Proud the SNP-led Scottish Government not only introduced rent controls but has extended them in order to protect tenants. Labour joining with the Tories in opposing rent controls is quite astonishing.
At this rate, will Labour have any promises left to break?
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@MayorLpool
@TUCNorthWest
are you seriously suggesting that trade union time given in the interests of your class is comparable to 'volunteering' for a large-scale corporate event involving multiple contractors?
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Regardless of how bad Scotland’s leadership will get: rent controls are in Scotgov’s programme to be implemented by 2025. It’s up to us to shape and win them and transform housing in Scotland for the benefit of the working class.
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Very exaggerated claims here from a bunch of babies facing normal regulations but if so: good. We need homes to live in.
(Hi Linda, before you pipe in we are also demanding a robust, points-based system of rent controls by 2025, and reversal of the social housing budget cut)
Almost two-thirds of short-term let landlords have claimed they are considering shutting up shop ahead of the licensing scheme deadline
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Hourly paid and on UCU strike today? Your line manager went without sick pay or the legal minimum wage during their PhD and all it took was a spouse with inheritance & a flat owned outright in Hyndland. Think about that next time you think you’re too big to work for exposure :)
Rihanna got paid $0 to perform at the Super Bowl half time show by the NFL but did it for exposure for her brand. Over 28.5 Million people watched her Super Bowl halftime show. Think about this the next time you think you are too big to work for exposure 🤷🏾♂️
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@Jay_Sutherland_
i've given this a couple of hours to digest and I'm struggling to see the logic of this tweet on multiple levels, but particularly: why do you speak in such vague terms on LR members and activists in govanhill with such disdain?
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There’s a reason the tenant response to this was strong, despite tenants not getting ScotGov’s invitation to participate (like every landlord in Scotland🫠) - it’s
@living_rent
members organising, again and again, in our communities.
The government just published it's analysis of their rent controls consultation.
Wondering how so many landlords responded in such a short space of time?🤔
The government emailed ALL the landlords on the Scottish housing register.
They did not do the same for tenants.
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We truly need to bring back shame as a public good!! Scottish public life is off the scale embarrassing and yet we still get these mortifying deep dives into the psyche of the 2nd home owner near daily 🫠
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Had a nice afternoon workshopping public speaking + breaking down barriers to talking about our struggles with community organisers and activists in Govanhill 💚
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This is an important continued relief in the PRS as we build towards a robust system of rent controls that brings exorbitant rents down. This would not have happened without the power of work from
@Living_Rent
and we will not stop until we win for tenants on all tenures.
🎉RENT FREEZE AND EVICTION BAN EXTENDED!🎉
The government has continued its commitment to tackling the housing crisis and says they will keep the private rented sector rent cap and eviction ban until March 2024 if approved by parliament.
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Shut up 🤡
EXCLUSIVE
First Glasgow boss says pub staff could drive Glasgow night buses (1/4)
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sad. One of the few hospitality jobs where I was treated well and worked alongside good folks. Personal anecdotes aside the city centre doesn’t need 200 more student residences, it needs a transformative strategy for buy back of unused land and buildings + quality public housing
Business as usual till 11th March,
End of an era:
Developers 1 Admiral 0. Thank you Staff & Friends enjoy one of Glasgow’s finest institutions while you can .
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Paying your staff the legal minimum wage uplift is very punk behaviour.
@FairHospitality
@BrewDog
@unitetheunion
@UniteSharon
@The_TUC
As a result of the changes we’re making – and despite unprecedented challenges in the hospitality sector – our staff outside London will be getting a 4.95% increase in base pay, and crew currently working in London will be paid 4.5% above the National Living Wage.
We have always
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No one more deserving! Big congrats to the force that is
@rosiehampton_
💚
🤝Every year, we celebrate the achievements of our youth movement.
🏆The Jimmy Waugh Memorial Award highlights one activist in particular who has went above and beyond for our movement.
⭐️The 2023 recipient is the incredible
@UCUScotland
member
@rosiehampton_
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Look who’s on Twitter after winning their long-fought-for recognition agreement this year - give the good comrades at the RCS a follow!
@Unison_RCS100
✊✊
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