REI Workers Take the Fight for a Contract to the Company’s Front Door
We obtained documents and recordings showing that REI managers have worked to thwart the unionization drive.
By Sam Delgado, More Perfect Union
Workers from all nine unionized REI stores in the U.S. marched Thursday to the company headquarters in Issaquah, Washington, demanding that the largest outdoor retailer in the U.S. come to the bargaining table and negotiate a first contract with their employees.
The action came four months after unionized REI stores filed over 80 unfair labor practice charges, claiming the company has failed to bargain in good faith with unionized stores, retaliated against pro-union employees, and punitively changed work policies, as well as other alleged violations of federal labor law.
“Every step of the way, REI is pushing back on us and trying to slow us down and trying to discourage us from wanting to fight for more,” Emma Harris, a worker at the store in SoHo that won the company’s first union two full years ago but still hasn’t reached a first contract, said during Thursday’s action. “So that's why we're here today, to demand that we can bargain together, we can bargain in good faith, and we can actually make moves, not just kind of symbolic gestures back and forth.”
More Perfect Union obtained documents and recordings of conversations between REI managers and employees that show a coordinated pressure campaign to persuade employees against unionization. The documents are dated from November 2022 to May 2023.
“REI is different than other companies,” begins one March 2023 document labeled “REI Labor Philosophy and Talking Points,” before stating that the company does “not support union representation for employees.”
“Union representation has proven to be in direct opposition to REI’s collaborative culture by eliminating direct communication, inhibiting collaboration, favoring transactional employee experiences, creating adversarial workplaces, and slowing progress,” the training document says” (Language from this document was first reported by Bloomberg.)
In an email responding to questions from More Perfect Union, an REI spokesperson said workers’ allegations that the company isn’t bargaining in good faith are “not true.”
“REI is committed and engaged in good-faith bargaining with stores that have chosen union representation and will continue to participate fully in the negotiating process,” the spokesperson said.
REI prides itself on its social impact and co-operative identity, though as others have pointed out, it’s a consumer co-op as opposed to a worker-owned co-op. On REI’s jobs site, the company says it’s “committed to becoming a fully inclusive, antiracist, and multicultural organization,” and is “united around discovering, building, and celebrating better ways of working in this world.”
Like coffee giant Starbucks and grocery retailer Trader Joe’s, REI’s progressive posture made it ripe for employee organizing. But like those other corporations, workers say, REI has responded to that effort with union-busting tactics.
“REI is truly a unique and exceptional place to work – there is no need for a union here,” the company’s talking points say, followed by a lengthy list of anti-union language for managers to refer to.
According to George Reed, a worker at the recently unionized Indianapolis store, the document was left out in a breakroom at one of the stores when a worker found it and distributed it amongst their colleagues. Reed says that workers had assumed that management had been trained on anti-union talking points, but didn’t know the specifics until the document was found.
“We got this document and we were seeing just all of these, you know, talking points that are labeled as facts and truths that REI is providing to our managers,” Reed told More Perfect Union. “And a lot of them are just either egregiously false or they're presented in a light of toxicity towards what the union brings into the store.”
The document includes the typical bullet points that anti-union employers use: that unions cause division, make it harder to address issues, and may cost workers some benefits they have now. (In response to a question about the documents, an REI spokesperson said the company “regularly provide[s] employees with training materials on a wide range of subjects relevant to our business,” and that such documents are “updated regularly and represent specific moments in time.”)
But one claim in the training document is particularly shocking, and according to workers, also inaccurate. “The SoHo union proposed to allow each employee to shoplift up to $30 per month,” the document says.
Steve Buckley, a member of the REI bargaining committee and a worker at the SoHo store, said that REI distorted their disciplinary proposal. “Not only did they distort the intentions, they flat out lied about how it would work,” he said.
Buckley said that the proposal was part of an initial counter to REI’s proposal to immediately terminate any employee who took anything from the store, even items like office supplies or a granola bar. No part of the counterproposal included an allotment to “shoplift” each month — rather, it intended to give workers who took low-value items like toilet paper a second chance before being terminated. (The issue has since been “resolved,” according to Buckley.)
“We’re retail workers, we’re working-class people with no level of guaranteed hours. If someone takes something literally as small as a roll of toilet paper, or some office supplies… because they’re just trying to do school work, which has happened, we don’t want to see someone lose their only source of income,” Buckley said.
“I’m never going to apologize for standing on the principle that people should be able to learn from their mistakes, not risk losing their housing or the ability to feed their families if they make an honest mistake,” he added.
Audio recordings of meetings between REI management and employees show managers blaming the unionization campaign for ruining what one described as the unique “vibe” at REI. One manager said during a May 2023 meeting that the union campaign had fostered a “sentiment of different teams and thus an ‘us vs. them’ mentality.”
Another REI manager later that month at the same store, however, boasted about a narrow apparent loss for the union at a store in Eugene, Oregon: “Wanted to update you all on our Eugene store, our Eugene store had their vote yesterday and they voted for REI and against union representation,” the manager said during a meeting. “So, super stoked on Eugene and what's ahead for them, for sure.”
Some managers have been even more direct in their opposition to a union. “I encourage you to vote your voice. And I encourage it to be a no,” one manager said in another May 2023 meeting. “You have a seat at the table with me currently and you will continue to have a seat at the table with me. If we are unionized, the person sitting across the table from you will be me and a lawyer. You already have that without the lawyer.” (REI has hired lawyers from Morgan Lewis, a multi-billion dollar firm that has previously represented Amazon and Boeing, to represent the company at the National Labor Relations Board.)
When asked if the company has directed managers to encourage workers against unionization, the spokesperson declined to comment on that allegation, but said that “the decision to be represented by a union is up to our employees – not the REI leadership team, Board of Directors, or anyone else.”
Another manager pointed out, during a different meeting from May 2023, that the first two unionized REI stores hadn’t negotiated a contract. “What has the union accomplished in Berkeley or SoHo?” the manager asked. “As of right now, they have gotten no raises in wages, no benefits, no changes in healthcare or [inaudible] hours.” ”
But unionized workers from locations like the SoHo store say that the company’s delay tactics are to blame for the lack of a contract.
“We, the workers of REI Union SoHo, have spent over 18 months pushing for a first contract…” REI worker Graham Gale said in a November press release, criticizing REI for hiring Morgan Lewis. “We’ve spent the last six months in only a handful of sessions, and seeing little agreement while re-educating the new lawyers on our long-held issues.”
In a press conference the day before the march, workers unveiled a national platform for their union demands called “The 10 Essentials”, based on basic principles for being safe in the outdoors. Through this platform, workers are demanding a living wage, guaranteed minimum hours, consistent scheduling, improved sick pay as well as vacation leave, flexibility for parents, a commitment to address inequalities in and out of the workplace, safe working conditions, minimum staffing, and for REI to bargain in good faith. (The company’s spokesperson declined to comment on the march directly, other than to note that a “planned union rally” took place outside the company’s headquarters.)
Thursday’s march marks an escalation from workers, intended to bring the bargaining table to the company as negotiations continue to stall. Despite the long battle for a first contract and strong opposition to unionization from the company, workers told More Perfect Union that they were feeling excited ahead of the action.
“It’s something that we have kind of been like – ‘What if we went to the HQ and told them we want to bargain…” Caleb Walker, a worker at the unionized Boston, MA store, told More Perfect Union on Wednesday. “And now it’s finally happening.”
Really sick of companies that spend millions on branding to craft phony images that shred the moment they're asked to treat their workers humanely.