The REI Union Effort Spreads To One other Metropolis

REI staff in Northeast Ohio are aiming to make their retailer the third to unionize in lower than a yr, in keeping with the Retail, Wholesale and Division Retailer Union (RWDSU).

The labor group mentioned in an announcement Wednesday {that a} “majority” of staff on the REI retailer within the Cleveland suburb of Orange Village had signed union playing cards and submitted a petition for a union election to the Nationwide Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The board should guarantee adequate curiosity in unionizing earlier than scheduling a vote.

Employees at REI’s New York Metropolis and Berkeley, California, areas fashioned the out of doors retailer’s first unions final yr. The REI labor effort is a part of a wave of recent organizing to hit beforehand non-union firms, lots of them within the retail area, together with Amazon, Starbucks, Apple and Dealer Joe’s.

REI mentioned in an announcement to HuffPost that the labor board had not but notified the corporate of a union petition.

“As at all times, the choice to be represented by a union is as much as our staff—not the REI management group, Board of Administrators or anybody else,” REI mentioned. “We imagine in the proper for each worker to vote for or towards union illustration and would absolutely help the petition course of and vote in Cleveland.”

The corporate, primarily based in Kent, Washington, and structured as a customer-owned cooperative, opposed the sooner organizing efforts, at one level releasing a much-discussed podcast arguing {that a} union might “affect our potential to speak and work immediately with our staff.”

Employees on the flagship New York retailer within the SoHo neighborhood voted overwhelmingly in favor of becoming a member of the RWDSU, 88 to 14, final March. Likewise, staff in Berkeley voted 56 to 38 in favor of becoming a member of the United Meals and Industrial Employees union, which is affiliated with the RWDSU, in August. Now, staff at these shops try to cut price their first contracts with the retailer.

The RWDSU estimates that the Ohio retailer employs roughly 55 staff eligible for union illustration. Dave Hein, a motorbike providers and ski mechanic on the retailer, mentioned in an announcement by the union that REI staff’ experience “drives the corporate’s brick-and-mortar retail enterprise.”

“We weathered the pandemic and saved the corporate afloat, we stretched ourselves skinny serving to the corporate obtain its highest revenue margin ever, and now we’re being informed that there aren’t sufficient hours to go round attributable to company overbuying and recession fears,” Hein mentioned.

Many retail staff have mentioned that the strains of working by the pandemic made them take into account unionizing to enhance their jobs. The labor board has seen a important uptick in union election petitions lately, citing the best single-year whole for the reason that fiscal yr 2016. Employees at greater than 200 Starbucks shops have unionized in a yr.

Correction: This story initially mentioned the REI retailer was positioned in Cleveland. Actually, it’s within the Cleveland suburb of Orange Village.