Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: To Go or Not To Go -- Cohousing and CohoUS

[Katie Henry (katie-henry]

I’ve been troubled by this whole union situation for several reasons:
 
1.     By definition, cohousing is not supposed to have a shared ideology. 
Cohousers claim to want a diverse range of political and social viewpoints, but 
of course the vast majority of cohousers are lefty liberals and anyone who 
doesn’t share that perspective doesn’t really fit in. I can understand and 
respect why individual members would not want to attend the conference and 
cross 

a picket line, but why is support for organized labor even an issue for the 
association? It’s not part of any mission statement or platform. 

 
2.     Where does this union get off asking so much of a small shoe-string 
organization, and laying such a guilt trip on its members? Are they asking the 
rich organizations – the dentists and the hedge-fund managers – to make similar 
sacrifices? Of course not. Who decided that the union’s goals and objectives 
are 

more important than those of the coho movement? There are plenty of struggling, 
deserving people who could benefit just as much from affordable coho, which 
might emerge from this conference, as the hotel workers could benefit from a 
better contract.
 
 
3.     I’m aware of a number of situations where cohousing communities have 
gone 

to great lengths to accommodate a potential member’s special needs, only to 
have 

the potential member back out and leave the community with an unsellable white 
elephant of a unit or some weird design aspect in the common house that worked 
for that one person and inconveniences everyone else. This seems like a similar 
situation. What would happen if the conference had been cancelled or moved (at 
great expense to the association) and then the strike was resolved? Would the 
union reimburse the association for its losses out of appreciation for the 
association’s support? Somehow I doubt it. And then wouldn’t we feel like a 
bunch of chumps.
 

It’s regrettable that this union issue seems to be putting a damper on the 
conference and possibly causing people to not attend.  I commend the board for 
trying in good faith to work with the union, but the main goal – the reason 
we’re all here – is to support and advance the cause of cohousing, and I think 
the board made the right decision to carry on with the conference.

Katie Henry