FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 2, 2024
Contact: Chelsea Connor | cconnor@rwdsu.org | 347-866-6259
REI CHICAGO WORKERS WALK OUT ON ULP STRIKE DURING LABOR DAY WEEKEND SALE OVER REI’S FAILURE TO BARGAIN OVER RECENT SCHEDULING CHANGES
(CHICAGO, ILLINOIS) – For the past two days, in the midst of REI’s Labor Day weekend sale, REI Chicago workers stopped work and walked off the job in an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike to protest REI’s failure to bargain over recent changes to scheduling and availability policies, as well as their failure to bargain a union contract in good faith. Notably, the REI Chicago Lincoln Park store is currently understaffed, putting undue burden on workers during a busy sale weekend. Workers rallied and picketed outside the store with their allies, demanding that REI come back to the table to bargain over the recent restructuring changes and reach a first union contract by the end of the year.
“We went on strike during this busy sale weekend because we are sick and tired of REI breaking the law. Our bargaining committee has worked hard to craft union contract proposals that allow for more predictable scheduling and availability procedures for green vests. Over the past year at the table, REI refuses to engage with these proposals in a meaningful way. Instead, they have implemented numerous changes to working conditions without first negotiating with us - a clear violation of labor law. To add insult to injury, the new ‘Stewarding Our Future’ availability and scheduling policies take our proposals and water them down significantly. This is unacceptable. REI, come back to the table and work with us to get a deal done so workers and customers can get back to focusing on what we loved about REI in the first place,” said Angie Forshee (she/her), Retail Sales Specialist at the REI Chicago Lincoln Park store.
ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:
Workers who won at the first organized REI store over two years ago in New York have been bargaining with the company without reaching a first union contract for almost two years, while others including Chicago, which won their union election over a year ago, have similarly been left to languish at the table for months. Exactly a year into contract negotiations at the first store, in SoHo, New York, REI announced it was changing its legal representation across all of its stores to Morgan Lewis, a notoriously, vehemently anti-union law firm. This led REI to cancel all bargaining sessions in the immediate weeks, and roll back an agreement to give the first unionized store the same increased pay scale it offered other non-unionized stores the day after their election, meaning workers have been working with less pay at that store than all of the other stores for almost a year. When negotiations resumed later in the summer, the move forced the worker-led bargaining committees at many stores to waste time recapitulating proposals that have been on the table for months, derailing and delaying bargaining.
On March 7, 2024, workers from all of the unionized stores across the country literally brought the bargaining tables to the company and demanded they come out and bargain in good faith. Union Representatives from all, then nine (now ten), Bargaining Committees co-signed a letter of commitment to reach a contract by the end of 2024, which workers also delivered to REI Headquarters; the union is still awaiting response from the company.
For a full year, only REI’s attorneys have been appearing at REI Chicago bargaining sessions, further delaying the process of getting to a contract. Company management and decision makers have continually failed to attend sessions and negotiate with workers directly.
For a company that purports to have so-called progressive values, REI has only conducted itself with an anti-union animus, leading to 80+ unfair labor practice charges levied against the company, with many more on the way. In early May, the union petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for a 10J injunction against the company for its failure to to bargain over unilateral changes it made to working conditions of REI’s employees, including laying off numerous workers. 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. Since the union filed for the 10J injunction, REI released their “Stewarding Our Future” restructure, which implemented further changes to availability and scheduling policies, again without bargaining over the changes with unionized workers before implementing them.
Despite the union busting on the shop floor and at the bargaining table, the REI Union movement is only growing, as stores in Castleton, Indiana and Santa Cruz, California won their union elections in 2024, becoming the 9th and 10th unionized stores at the company.
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Learn more about the growing REI unionization movement here.
The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) represents 100,000 members throughout the United States. The RWDSU is affiliated with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW). For more information, please visit our website at www.rwdsu.org, Facebook:/RWDSU.UFCW Twitter:@RWDSU.