03/16/2026
🅰️⚡🐺The longest rent strike in Chicago since the 60s has just come to an end. In April of 2025, the tenants of Fuerzas Inquilinos de Broadway y Cuyler went on Rent Strike after receiving news that their building had been bought.
The union watched as friends and neighbors left the building but managed to stay strong. Instead of paying their rent each month, the tenants held on to the money, using it as leverage to get Drew Millard to negotiate. Their main demand? The tenants wanted to stay in the apartments their families had called home for decades.
Month after month passed and Fuerzas Inquilinos along with ACTA used a variety of tactics to put pressure on Millard. He fought back by filing evictions against the union. Ultimately the tenants agreed to move out of the building. Because the primary demand was to stay, we consider the strike to have failed.
Although Millard ultimately got what he wanted, it didn’t come without a cost. We estimate that he wasted over $250,000 to get the tenants out of their homes not including potential payout to tenants. Could it be the largest in recent Chicago history? Because of a non-disclosure agreement signed by the tenants, they cannot answer this question.
ACTA was able to help the 12 union families relocate, providing assistance with the apartment search, applications and the physical moving process. Over 20 ACTA organizers showed up for six days of moving, through single-digit temperatures, helping relocate tenants and their belongings to their new homes. Thanks to ACTA’s strike fund, not one cent fell on the tenants.
The FIBC rent strike proves three things. First, going on strike is not as risky as it seems. Second, a centralized, disciplined organization that builds deep trust with the people is what allows risks to be taken and extraordinary tasks to be accomplished. Finally, as we’ve argued in our pamphlet, Tenant Spring, a tenant organization can cost landlords quite a lot of money, making investment and gentrification a much higher risk. We hope landlords looking for easy flips will hear about this and think twice.
