Last year, during a mandatory meeting of employees at a Manhattan REI store, a manager ticked off a list of what he called “serious red flags” about the union trying to organize the company’s employees. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) has suffered a decline in membership and revenue, he said, which should be concerning. What’s more, he said, “they’ve allocated barely any revenue to social impact,” according to an audio recording of the gathering reviewed by Bloomberg Businessweek. “Compare that to our $6.3 million to nonprofit partners in 2021 alone.”
Some employees found that criticism strange: In their eyes, the union itself is a social impact organization, one that helps advance the sort of values that drew them to work at REI in the first place. “We are living the co-op values by doing this,” says one of them, Claire Chang. “Coming together to unionize as workers is 100% aligned with what REI says they are.”
Employees at eight of REI’s roughly 180 US stores, starting with the Manhattan one, have voted to unionize over the past two years with the RWDSU or other chapters of the United Food & Commercial Workers, seeking a say in issues such as safety, scheduling and benefits. But—like their newly unionized counterparts at Amazon.com, Apple and Starbucks—none has gotten close to negotiating an actual union contract with the company. On Nov. 14, the UFCW filed cases with the US National Labor Relations Board, accusing REI of refusing to negotiate fairly at stores across the country. It’s the latest volley in an escalating dispute in which each side accuses the other of violating the humane values that are core to the retailer’s brand.
Source: Bloomberg
Omni Talk is the retail blog for retailers, written by retailers. Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga founded Omni Talk in 2017 and have quickly turned it into one of the fastest growing blogs in retail. 