Cleveland elected officials are joining the chorus of REI workers demanding that the company reach a union agreement by the end of the year.
On Monday, amid REI’s annual anniversary sale event, a delegation including state representatives and state senators will deliver a letter to management at REI’s Beachwood store pushing the company to engage in good-faith bargaining for a contract. Officials will then join in a rally including REI Co-Op members and Cleveland labor groups including members of the North Shore Labor Federation (AFL-CIO), fellow union members and leaders from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU).
The location won the right to form a union on March 3, 2023 and workers have been negotiating with the company since July. “They have been contending with the company’s attorneys from their notoriously anti-union law firm, Morgan Lewis, LLP, making little-to-no progress at the bargaining table, and have only met a mere eight times,” RWDSU said in a statement.
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The Monday rally follows a Saturday strike at REI’s Lincoln Park location in Chicago, wherein workers walked off the job in an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) protest. They were joined by fellow union members, as well as elected officials like State Senators Robert Peters and Lakesia Collins and Secretary-Treasurer of the Chicago Federation of Labor Don Villar, as well as stakeholders from Chicago’s labor movement.
Chicago Federation of Labor president Bob Reiter accused the company of union busting, saying the delayed negotiations signal that “the company is not serious about negotiating a fair contract.”
“But these workers are serious, and they will hold strong until management gives in to their demands,” he added, noting that Chicago labor advocates “were there to stand with them and amplify their voice demanding a fair contract by the end of 2024.”
“Empowered workers hold the key to unlocking a brighter future for all, and their collective voice is the driving force behind creating safe and equitable workplaces,” State Senator Collins added. “With our collective voices, workers can ensure transformative changes and better life for themselves and their families.”
The difficulties in contract negotiations persist across the retailer’s store network.
Workers who first won the right to organize at an REI store in New York two years ago have also been bargaining with the outdoor retailer for a contract since then. According to RWDSU, REI changed horses in the middle of the negotiation, switching legal representation one year after the union vote took place.
Morgan Lewis, the new law firm, urged the company to cancel bargaining sessions, and it subsequently reneged on an agreement to increase the pay scale at the scale to match other non-unionized stores. Workers at the SoHo location have been receiving lower wages than all other REI locations for almost a year, RWDSU reported.
Earlier this spring, workers from all of the unionized REI stores convened and brought symbolic bargaining tables to the company’s headquarters in Issaquah, Wash. Union representatives from nine bargaining committees signed a letter of commitment to reach a contract by the end of this year which was delivered to REI headquarters. According to RWDSU, the company has yet to respond, and has sent its attorneys to appear at bargaining sessions on its behalf. This refusal to engage has delayed the contract process, the union said.
In the wake of the stalled negotiations, more than 80 unfair labor practice charges have been levied against the retailer. May saw the union petition the National Labor Relations Board for a 10J injunction against the REI “for its failure to bargain over unilateral changes it made to working conditions of REI’s employees, including laying off numerous workers,” RWDSU said. “The evidence shows that REI announced that it was making these changes and then denied the demands of the unions to bargain over the changes before unlawfully implementing them.”
According to RWDSU, REI leadership are holing up in their “Washington treehouse” to escape the noise—but that doesn’t mean the union push is losing momentum. In fact, a store in Castleton, In. unionized earlier this year, and workers in Santa Cruz, Calif. voted to become the company’s 10th unionized store in April.
“REI continues to demonstrate their lack of interest in reaching a final contract by engaging in bad faith bargaining,” REI SoHo retail sales specialist Zoe Dunmire said this week. “Time and time again they exclude unionized REI employees from pay increases and benefits that we have received in years prior thus breaking status quo.”
Castleton, In. retail sales specialist Alaina Preddie said REI isn’t living up to its own hype as it engages with its employees. “My coworkers and I formed a union because we’ve been told REI upholds certain values; specifically values that uplift the employee experience like supporting a work-life balance,” she said. “They claim to support employees right to ‘A life outdoors is a life well lived’ when my coworkers are still scraping by on their wages while the cost of living increases each year.”
“With the Co-Op board failing to address our store unions’ right to negotiate a fair contract and not addressing member questions during the most recent board meeting, it’s clear that REI isn’t holding its own values to themselves,” she added.
This story has been updated with information about the worker strike at REI’s Chicago location on Saturday.
