Workers at a REI store in New York City voted to unionize Wednesday, creating the only union at the outdoor gear and apparel retailer. The vote, which took place in the store, was 88 to 14.
The vote, in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, followed a series of union activities among leading employers in the service industry. Employees of three Starbucks stores have voted to unionize since early December, creating the only union in company-owned stores. Workers at two Amazon warehouses will vote in union elections at the end of this month.
REI, with approximately 170 stores and 15,000 employees nationwide, is a cooperative owned by customers who purchase lifetime memberships, currently $30, and profiles itself as a forward-thinking company, along the lines of Starbucks. Its website states that the cooperative believes in “putting purpose before profit” and that it invests more than 70 percent of its profits in “the outdoor community,” including contributions to nonprofit organizations.
“REI SoHo employees are ready to negotiate a strong contract that will enable them to uphold the cooperative’s progressive values while providing the first-class service REI customers have come to expect,” said a statement from Stuart. Appelbaum, chairman of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, who helped organize the workers.
After the vote, the company said in a statement: “As we have said throughout this process, REI firmly believes that the decision of whether or not to be represented by a union is important, and we respect the right of every employee to elect or refuse union representation.”
John Logan, a professor of labor studies at San Francisco State University, said REI, like Starbucks, attracts workers who seem to have an ideological affinity for unions beyond its possible practical benefits, such as an increase in wages.
“REI appears to be another example of predominantly young workers disbelieving the arguments that unions are special interest groups,” Mr Logan said in an email.
The company estimated the median age of its employees at 37, about five years younger than the median age of all U.S. employees.
Store workers began organizing in the fall of 2020, in part because many believed that workers who were candid in voicing Covid-related safety concerns should not be allowed to return after REI temporarily closed its stores that year. An election request was submitted five weeks ago.
In a video conference with reporters last week convened by the retail workers union, Claire Chang, a visual presentation specialist who has worked at the store for more than four years, also raised concerns about coronavirus safety.
Ms Chang said that after the store reopened in 2020, managers asked employees how comfortable they would be to reopen the fitting rooms, where employees regularly come into contact with clothing worn by customers.
“The majority of the staff, if not all of the staff, said they weren’t comfortable with that, and they went ahead and did it anyway,” said Ms. Chang.
Steve Buckley, a sales specialist who has been in the store for about six months, said in the video conference that he was one of many employees who had become infected with the coronavirus during the Omicron peak, while the store was packed with customers.
A spokeswoman for REI said the retailer had let less than 5 percent of its employees go nationwide when it reopened and the decisions had nothing to do with the outspoken employees. She said fitting rooms were equipped with disinfectants and the store had limited capacity during the pandemic.
She cited a 2021 study that found that employees typically rated the company highly on questions such as whether it treated them as valued employees.
Several workers said they had tried to unionize because of a gap they perceived between REI’s behavior and its stated values, and claimed the workplace had become more impersonal and profit-oriented as it tried to expand.
“There’s been tremendous pressure to sell memberships,” Graham Gale, an employee involved with the organization, said in a text message to a reporter in January.
The workers also said REI had launched an aggressive anti-union campaign, flew company officials to hold meetings with workers about union risks and hanging materials in break rooms, and created a website highlighting those risks.
Mr Buckley said a meeting he attended in February with senior officials lasted about two hours and dealt with matters such as health insurance. The officials “openly yelled at us that we were wrong about the basic policies in our store and the basic conditions we face,” he said. “How is that a respectful environment?” The company offers health insurance to employees who work an average of at least 20 hours per week after one year.
The spokeswoman said the company had tried to share information about unions and that the February meeting was a long-planned training session for the relaunch of the company’s membership program.
Mr. Logan, a professor of labor studies, said one of the reasons REI’s efforts to dissuade employees from unionizing, such as Starbucks’ one, may have been ineffective was that the stores were not typically top-heavy with supervisors.
“They operate relatively autonomously, with little managerial presence or oversight, so they provide ample opportunity to talk about unions,” said Mr. Logan. “After they do this, anti-union propaganda becomes less effective – they have a decision.”
