Breaking REI Union News
"REI has hemorrhaged money for two years in a row. Now employees fear its famed outdoor-nerd culture is at risk"
August 19th, 2024 — Via Fortune Magazine: "...There had been discontent brewing among the Green Vests for years. It picked up steam during the pandemic, when unpredictable and chaotic conditions created stress for frontline workers at all kinds of retailers. Tim Spangler, head of retail and a 28-year REI veteran whom many credited with building the strong Green Vest culture, left in 2021. And early the following year, for the first time in REI’s history, workers at one of its stores—the flagship in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood—began the process that led them to unionize as part of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union..."
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REI Union Makes Statement on "Stewarding our Future" Restructuring
August 21st, 2024 — REI recently overhauled scheduling and availability policies at the Co-op, as part of their “Stewarding Our Future” restructuring. With this overhaul, REI is limiting full-time positions, requiring workers to be fully available for many extra days each year, and making it much harder for us to get home during the holidays.
Parts of these new policies reflect what we’ve been demanding at the bargaining table for years, but the vast majority of these changes are half measures that SEVERELY miss the mark on what REI workers are asking for and truly need. Read more of our reflections on how, with this restructuring, REI is ignoring our voices and trying to “Steward our Futures” for us.
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Read more about the rally and our community demands at the Ithaca Times.
Austin REI workers accuse management of union busting and ignoring sexual harassment
August 9th, 2024 — Audrey Goff, a worker REI Austin, recently sat down with Texas standard to discuss the union busting they’ve experienced at their store. In these conversations, we learn that REI has been unfairly disciplining workers who are involved with union activity. We also see how REI ignored workers’ reports of sexual harassment at the Austin store - a new low for the company.
Read the full article on texasstandard.org, and listen to Audrey’s explanation of what’s been happening at their store here.
REI Union Rallies in Ithaca, NY at New Store Opening​
July 1st, 2024 — REI Co-op members and community supporters gathered Saturday, June 29th on the weekend of the grand opening for their new store in Ithaca, New York.
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Supporters heard stories from our union coworkers as well as from elected officials and others who joined us to call on REI to remain neutral, should green vests at the REI Ithaca location choose to organize. Furthermore, they demanded that REI ditch their consistent pattern of union busting and begin negotiating in good faith with their workers at union stores to settle contracts before the end of this year.
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Read more about the rally and our community demands at the Ithaca Times.
REI Green Vests Take Action Across Union Stores During REI’s Biggest Sale of the Year​​
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From May 17th - 27th, unionized REI workers across the country rallied, leafleted Co-op members, and went on ULP strike to amplify their continued demands for a fair union contract by the end of 2024.
Hundreds of REI members, shoppers, elected officials, and community supporters stopped by these actions to show solidarity for green vests and their fight for a strong deal. Read more about a few of these actions below:
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REI Castleton Rallies with Community Figures
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REI Bellingham Goes on ULP Strike Saturday, May 25th
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SoHo Green Vests Stage Rally with Labor Groups Outside Flagship Store
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REI Cleveland Workers Rally Alongside Politicians for a Fair Contract
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Green Vests in Chicago Walk Out on ULP Strike and Shut Down Store
REI Santa Cruz Wins Union Election​​
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April 19th 2024 — REI workers in Santa Cruz, California voted 33 to 12 to unionize with UFCW Local 5 this Thursday. The workers in Santa Cruz filed for their election in March and will become the 10th REI store to win their election to join the REI Union movement. They will also become the second REI Co-op store to be represented in the Bay Area, alongside REI Berkeley.
In public statements from workers at the store, green vests voiced their excitement to win and move onto the next step of building their first union contract.
A Growing Union Campaign Has Put REI's Progressive Image On Trial
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March 16th 2024 — HUFFPOST: REI workers from stores around the country showed up uninvited at their corporate office in Issaquah, Washington, last Friday. The signs they were carrying made it clear to the white-collar employees looking down from the windows above that they weren’t there to tour the campus.
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Plenty of REI’s devoted customers ― “members,” in company parlance, since REI is structured as a cooperative ― would have been surprised to see disaffected employees protesting such a beloved retailer. But a growing union campaign that has so far organized nine stores and counting is testing the progressive reputation that REI built through its environmental and conservation advocacy over the years.
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Workers who are trying to improve their jobs through a union contract say the cooperative is failing to live up to its values and damaging its reputation in the process.
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Read the Full Article Here
REI Workers File for Union Election in Santa Cruz, CA​​
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March 14th 2024 — SANTA CRUZ, CA: - Today, REI workers at the Santa Cruz location filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board, registering their intent to join United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) Local 5. The location would be the 2nd REI store in the Bay Area and the 10th REI store nationwide to unionize for fair pay, sustainable schedule practices, and better working conditions.
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Truitt Archibald (he/him), REI Sales Specialist at the Santa Cruz store, said the following: "Today. I'm proud to stand with my coworkers and take this first step towards a better REI for workers, consumers, and the larger outdoor community. As green vest, it's our hard work and expertise that make REI the brand that it is. We deserve the compensation respect, and safer working conditions that only a union contract can guarantee. I feel honored to join this growing movement."​
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REI Workers to March to Headquarters
March 7th, 2024 — ISSAQUAH, WA - REI employees from the company’s nine unionized stores around the country, including in Boston, plan to hike from a park in Issaquah, Wash., to REI headquarters Thursday afternoon to demand that executives come to the table and bargain in good faith.
Over the past two weeks, union members have held events in the nine communities where they’re organized to unveil a national platform demanding job security, guaranteed minimum hours, a consistent sick policy, and minimum staffing levels. Bargaining for a first contract has been dragging on for as long as two years at the Soho location in New York, the first store to organize. When REI changed its legal representation a year into negotiations, the unions said, the company rolled back an agreement to give workers there the same pay increases offered to non-union stores the day after the union election.
In November, in the first coordinated effort among all the REI union employees, who are represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, the workers filed 80 unfair labor practice charges against the company for bargaining in bad faith and engaging in anti-union behavior.
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REI Castleton location becomes 9th store to unionize
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February 12th 2024 — INDIANAPOLIS - Workers at a Castleton REI store in Indianapolis won their union election by a 27-17 vote Friday, joining a young national union collective and becoming the ninth store of the outdoors retailer to unionize.
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Workers are demanding consistent hours, competitive wages adjusted for inflation, improved communication as well as healthcare, parental leave and PTO adjustments in their move to unionize.
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“An overwhelming number of us voted in favor of unionizing, and we can’t wait to make REI Castleton a better place for everyone,” the national collective posted on social media. “Here’s to forging a stronger Co-op alongside our union siblings nationwide.”
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