REI worker organization

Workers at Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI), an American retail and outdoor recreation services co-op, have one recognized trade union. The company has faced accusations of being anti-union. In 2016, REI workers went public with organization efforts that had been growing over concerns about wages and working conditions in the Pacific Northwest, and the company has since faced increasing public criticism from its employees nationwide over issues including living wages, hourly worker policies, and safety protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic. Workers have organized at least five petitions since 2016. REI has maintained that it is committed to adjusting and improving working conditions for its employees.

In 2022, a REI store in SoHo, Manhattan, New York City, became the first in the retailer's history to file a petition for a union vote with the National Labor Relations Board. The store's employees voted in support of the union.

As of 2025, eleven stores have voted to unionize, but they have yet to finish negotiating a contract.[1]

REI Employees for Real Change

2016

In 2016 a group of REI employees, and former employee Alpine Anderson, in Seattle, Washington, where REI is headquartered, calling themselves "REI Employees for Real Change" created a Facebook page, an Instagram account, and started a petition with Coworker.org, a nonprofit labor group that assists workers in organizing. The workers claimed that following a rise in the city's minimum wage, the raises they got were not commensurate with the hike, and many had their hours cut and scheduling was "erratic". In May 2016, at the consumer co-op’s annual members’ meeting, a worker asked then-chief executive officer (CEO) Jerry Stritzke why retail workers hadn't gotten a raise for the prior year in spite of record revenues, saying, "Can we get the signal that we matter too?" Strizke said that the co-op could not afford to pay all its workers the $15 minimum wage they were asking for, but that he considered them REI's "most important asset".[2][3]

SoHo

On January 21, 2022, 115 workers at REI's SoHo store in Manhattan, New York City, led by Claire Chang,[25] filed the retailer's first NLRB petition for a union vote with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. The SoHo organizing campaign was supported by the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee.[26] Kate Denend, one of the store's organizers, alleged that the company keeps workers classified as part-time for a year, depriving them of benefits, despite working 32 or more hours per week, and often keeps workers under-scheduled following the holiday season. She alleged it was a "facade of being a progressive, liberal company", and that none of the workers are "making a living wage". Graham Gale, another union organizer, alleged that workers had faced "unsafe working conditions during a global pandemic" and that many of the workers laid off during the pandemic had been at the company for many years and were among the most outspoken about workplace issues.[20] Workers involved in organizing and joining the union were reported to be determined to stay with the company, strongly believing in the work that they do, and wanting to make a good workplace better.[27][25]

Berkeley

In August 2022, the REI store in Berkeley, California, voted to join the United Food and Commercial Workers union.[39]

External links

References

Nate Sanford. A labor-backed Seattle activist fights for an REI co-op board seat www.cascadepbs.org, retrieved 2025-01-31^
Janet I. Tu. Some REI workers plan forum to push for better hours, pay The Seattle Times, 8 July 2016, retrieved 2022-02-23^
Daniel DeMay. Socialist Sawant backs fed-up REI workers over hours, wages, right to union

2020

In spring 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the group, led by former worker Caleb Lawson, started another petition with Coworker.org accusing REI of prioritizing sales over the safety of its workers. The petition demanded hazard pay and improved safety protocols. Workers in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Texas, and Tucson, Arizona, alleged that they had not been informed about exposure to COVID-19 and that management had instructed them not to share their positive test results with their teammates or on social media. The Grand Rapids store had been closed for one day, July 3, 2020, to investigate "potential" exposure, but reopened the following day, after leadership had determined no one had been exposed. On July 6, 2020, a worker alerted their colleagues in a group chat, allegedly against the wishes of leadership, that they tested positive for the virus on July 2, 2020, and that management had told them not to tell anyone. Devin Hilla, a worker who quit because of the incident, alleged that the human resources department told him his contact with the sick worker did not count as exposure. Lawson alleged that he was pressured to resign after raising concerns and starting the petition. REI said that their notification policies were meant to avoid revealing confidential health information of workers, and to protect COVID-positive employees from exclusion or other poor treatment from coworkers.[10] REI later changed their policy to notify everyone at a store of positive test cases and the last date that employee worked, CEO Eric Artz saying, "Some employees wanted transparency above what C.D.C. guidelines and our policies directed". REI closed all of its stores in March 2020, and they were all re-opened in seven waves, utilizing contactless shopping and limiting in-store transactions, by July 6, 2020.[11][10]

Workers also criticized the co-op for furloughing its retail staff, unpaid, during April until July 2020, and then laying off 400 of the workers while opening six new stores. REI said it had closed the stores to prioritize the safety of workers and customers, and paid the employees as long as they could before the furlough, and maintained all employee benefits during the closures. Artz gave up his entire salary during the unpaid leave, along with board members and REI executives taking a 20-percent reduction in pay and forfeiture of bonuses for 2021. The company also laid off 300 corporate employees due to the pandemic. REI said that the decisions made during 2020 were necessary to maintain a healthy infrastructure, later selling their recently opened Bellevue, Washington, corporate headquarters in favor of a "remote-first" approach to recoup losses from the pandemic.[12][13][14]

In fall 2020, the group called out REI's marketing around the 2015 #OptOutside campaign a "marketing move" that only benefited corporate workers. Workers in Pittsburgh, Saratoga, and Portland alleged that the company's marketing of its image covered up "what REI is" and the working conditions, alleging that working at REI in retail "you cannot make a living". The campaign was centered around workers receiving one full day of paid time off on Black Friday to "do what they love most – be outside", and the ethical responsibility of discouraging shopping. REI said in a press release that they were paying all of its 12,000 employees for the day off. Workers said that members and staff were excited about the annual initiative, but also reported that a minimum to receive paid days off at the co-op is 24 hours, a threshold they said many had struggled to meet, saying that closing on Black Friday resulted in a reduction of hours that disqualified them from receiving holiday pay on both Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Workers alleged the practice was systemic, but REI said that their scheduling was based around customer experience, and employee availability and performance. The campaign was widely praised by the public and by corporate REI employees, and workers organizing and speaking to the press said that they believed REI was one of the best retailers for which to work. REI also said that it offered bonuses to all employees, and employees who worked more than 20 hours a week were eligible for "some of the best benefits available to retail employees".[15][16]

The co-op said that it put more than 70 percent of profits into employee profit sharing programs and its member dividend program, and that it placed "purpose before profits".[17]

REI worker organization

REI Employees for Real Change

2016

SoHo

Berkeley

See also

External links

References

2018

2020

2021

2023

2025