by Justin Housman | Mar 3, 2022 | News + Issues | 51 comments
It was an overwhelming “yes.” In an 88-14 vote, employees at the Manhattan REI voted to approve a union. It’s the first REI to do so, and follows on the heels of chains like Starbucks seeing similar union drives in the service and retail sector.
“The workers of REI SoHo are ready to negotiate a strong contract that will allow them to uphold the co-op’s progressive values while providing the top-notch service REI customers have come to expect,” said a statement from Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.
A post shared by REI Union SoHo (@reiunionsoho)
REI’s company as a whole is composed of younger workers. They average 37 years of age, about 5 years younger than the average retail worker in the U.S. Many of those workers feel a growing unease over a gap between housing cost, inflation, and wages.
Further, many have been alarmed at aggressive pushes to sell memberships to customers, coming from a store that typically has less than pushy vibe.
“REI seems like another example of predominantly young workers who are not buying the arguments about unions being special-interest groups,” said John Logan, a professor of labor studies at San Francisco State University.
The company released the following statement after the vote:
“As we have said throughout this process, REI firmly believes that the decision of whether or not to be represented by a union is an important one, and we respect each employee’s right to choose or refuse union representation. We are, at our core, cooperative. Our employees are the heart of the co-op community, and their expertise, enthusiasm and joy in helping people get outside make us who we are. We greatly appreciate their hard work and dedication through what continues to be a remarkably challenging time in the world.”
“We’re not organizing because we hate it here; we love it here,” REI employee Toby Finke said in an interview. “But we want the culture of our workplace [to] match what we were promised when we were hired.”
That’s awesome! Hoping more employees north of the border at Mountain Equipment Company can do the same, they deserve better than what they’ve had the last few years.
Not all is rosy with unions
Not all is rosy with unions because they are run by humans. Like any good thing, unions require work, attention, and intelligence to use well. I won’t pretend that unions are perfect, nothing is. But I also clearly see that unions give workers the ability to collectively create better workplaces and create careers that pay more fairly. I recognize the flaws and the possibilities of unions from growing up in a union home (shout out to my dad and the United Transportation Union) and currently being a union member as well (Minnesota Education Association).
I was looking for a place to wade in here and your anecdote is just the signal I needed, thanks Tim. One thing I always find interesting in union debates in the 21st century is that so many voices against unions come from the same people who fondly look back in history to an America of prosperous small towns with homeowners who worked in local factories, etc., which was largely made possible by unions looking out for their workers and their conditions. The vehement anti-union narrative was a choice made by particular business interests and a particular political party to break worker control over their own pay and working conditions. But what do I know, I only studied American economic history in grad school.
Let’s all just enjoy the weekend…
brought to you by… mmmm perhaps the anti-union folks could do themselves a favor by looking this one up.
“We are, at our core, cooperative. Our employees are the heart of the co-op community, etc” – I’ll wager the Mountain Equipment Co-op management said something similar right before they sold the Co-op to an American corp without consulting the membership..
I am all for workers to have better wages, better work environments, great. These stories are pushing how unions are going to accomplish this, and they most likely will in the short term. Long term, get ready to be shopping at an REI and ask for a Merrill in size 10 and wait for hours because as the employee was looking for your size in the stockroom, their mandatory break came up so they dropped everything they were doing, including looking for your shoe. I’ve dealt with the union environment many times and front end, yay employees have it better, back end, a bastion of inefficiency and entitlement develops. We need to figure out ways to treat workers better and at the same time accomplish what business was set out to do. I also wonder what exactly the employees were promised when they were hired that they aren’t getting. We are in a climate where clearly cost of living is high and there are not enough high paying jobs for the population of workers. REI was never meant as a high paying skilled job. It takes skills to work there, I’ve worked in shops for many years, but the skills aren’t highly specialized. That is the issue that needs to be addressed not trying to turn every hourly, easy to be trained job, into a long term career. Interesting optics both sides try to spin. Welcome to the union.
I have shopped at REI but prefer my local outdoor shop. The reason is because their employees are much more likely to have those skills you don’t seem to think are important. Usually, when I buy gear, it is for an upcoming trip. Having someone who knows more about what I am doing than I do, can really help me make buying decisions, and secondly make better choices about my trip.
For example, I had a $100 REI gift card. I stopped in at the store to look at tents. I had a lot of questions, and the associate I was talking to didn’t have many answers. I didn’t buy anything and went home to do my own research online. I settled on a tent I like from Mountain Hardware, and it turned out to be cheaper on the mountain hardware site so I bought it there. If the REI employee knew more about tents and camping I would have bought the tent there.
I also think, that when it comes to the long-term profitability of REI, their employees will need that local knowledge. Just like REI put a lot of local outdoor shops out of business, online stores will put REI out of business if it can’t differentiate itself with local insights and better service.
I do think those skills are important, I never said otherwise. For example, let’s take two positions at REI. One is someone who let’s say works in the accounting and tax department at their corporate headquarters and one who works on the sales floor. Both have skills in their job but who has a more specialized and more valued skill set, the accountant with maybe a degree, specialized training in retail taxes and is part of a smaller group of people who have this knowledge or the sales floor employee who knows a lot about camping gear because they’ve camped a lot? Who is easier to replace? Hard to understand now?
Successfully ??? Sound like a failure to me.
Ideally REI will close this location as well as any other that unionizes. This isn’t the 1800s, its a very open and free market. Don’t like what a company is paying? Leave. You have no right to the employer’s job.
Exactly. For example, Target is paying $24/hour near Buffalo NY.
How’s that boot taste?
“very open and free market” ???
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/09/inequality-free-market-myth-billionaires
So sad to see these well meaning employees duped by another example of government sponsored extortion, aka unions. Service will suffer. Costs will rise. The location will become unable to sustain a profit and will be forced to close.
You have ait right. Be careful what you wish for folks. I spent 40 years in the world of business with some unions and some not. This HE companies who were unionized were almost always less profitible ??) that those I folloed as competitors. At the time it did not make sense to me and I am not sure that is the case now though I am now retired. JT
The comments on this article have a surprising amount of anti-union sentiment from what I would have expected from Adventure Journal readers!
Perhaps those with a tad more life experiences that understand the dark underside of unions. The grass isn’t always greener.
I’m have some “life experience” I’d like to share. My union protected two members against wrongful termination and managed to get workers a 6% raise in the last year (which was 4.5% more than the company had initially proposed). And if that’s too anecdotal, a 2019 meta-analaysis revealed unions do make companies less profitable, but not less productive (in fact, unionized construction and education workers in the US are actually more productive), and they also significantly reduce income inequality by raising worker wages. It seems like the only people for whom unions are not good are those who benefit from underpaying for labor and externalizing the costs of doing so on taxpayers.
No, the comments are more reflective of the actual thought of the population. What you see is that most of mainstream media and news outlets write stories and cover the “news” in such a way that you’d think the sky is always falling, nobody can afford anything, we are all doomed, and our utter existence is terrible, etc. etc. etc. However most of the “journalists” writing those stories (yes, stories) are young, inexperienced, coddled participation trophy recipients and since they control the majority of the narrative this is what is being fed to us. The reality is most people see through this BS, clearly see through it, and what you see in these comments is a reflection of that.
And yet the facts say otherwise.
“Majorities of Americans say unions have a positive effect on U.S. and that decline in union membership is bad”
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/09/03/majorities-of-americans-say-unions-have-a-positive-effect-on-u-s-and-that-decline-in-union-membership-is-bad/
Reread the poll more closely now.
I did, yup MAJORITY OF AMERICANS say unions have a positive effect on U.S. and that decline in union membership is bad.
Why do you have to yell? Read between the lines on who is polled and how the poll was taken. Also go research the actual results of unions on an industry and why they actually decreased, etc. If unions operated like they were intended than great, but they have become as corrupt as the corporations they are supposedly trying to help shield the workers from. Pew is solid data but not the only poll or data out there. Workers need to be treated better, but a union in a retail environment will ultimately cause more harm than good, if history is any indicator of how things will turn out. People want better treatment of workers and think unions are the answer, hence your “evidence”.
K: “The reality is MOST people see through this BS”
Poll: “MAJORITY of Americans say unions have a positive effect on U.S. and that decline in union membership is bad.”
Summary: Objective facts hold more weight than unsupported opinion and spin.
Capitalized for emphasis Glad I could help 😉
Beware the ad hominem arguement.
Poll results are not ad hominem “arguments”. Better luck next time.
I stopped shopping there when they dropped camping products because the subsidiary’s parent owned another subsidiary that made firearms. I hope they choke on their progressive values.
You and me both, brother. It was all bs. I joined REI over 45 years ago. They ceased being a co-op a while back. I haven’t darker their doorstep since their faux protest. You can’t spell hypocrite without REI.
What a week on AJ.
First, people were up in arms that the Interior Dept is dropping derogatory slurs on Federal Sites. Today, we’ve got the anti-union crowded giving us the pick yourself up by your bootstraps lines.
I am looking forward to Friday when everyone is outraged about an article on climate change.
That’s what you get when you make assumptions….
Assumptions? You mean like assuming pro-union people don’t have enough “life experiences”.
Really pleased to see this! Glad that these people will have a chance to control the terms of their employment.
REI sorta lost me years ago when it became more of a “lifestye” company. just reading the product descriptions in their brochures made me cringe. the crown was/is their catering to the yoga crowd! mats, pants and all…
The REI here in San Francisco is for a big part useless for me as in 90% when i go there, they don’t my size (shoe sz 10; clothing small to medium). and that is the case since their opening 15 years ago or so.
I always shopped at Sports Basement for outdoor gear, largely for the reasons you just described. Especially the one in the Presidio — the staff in the backpacking/camping section seemed to really know their stuff most of the time.
me too a long time ago. they took over what REI abandoned years ago.
1) REI is not perfect, but they are the best big outdoor retailer we have in the US. They give more back and support much more good projects than places like Backcountry (backcountry who started setting their lawyers onto any company that used the word “backcountry” in their name) or Moosejaw (which is just Walmart) etc. For the serious outdoors people, we’re probably better off with online cottage industry places or the odd little independent place these days, but for people starting out who want to learn from the staff and touch things, then REI works well. 2) Union will negotiate for better terms, so it will have to come out of the REI bottom line. Is it going to be too much that the store becomes unprofitable? Nobody knows that. It’s not in the Unions/workers interest to do that. 3) I see this as a really positive experiment. It’s one store, not all of them.
REI must not be the best because they are clearly mistreating or exploiting their workers. Why else would the workers need to unionize unless they are being abused by their corporate overlords. Anyone here championing their prospective unionization should be boycotting REI for their mistreatment of their workers.
Yeah, there must not be any other factors at play. /s
You’re right. I guess they could all have a deep seated need to be part of a club where you buy your way in like a fraternity.
What does that mean, not trying to argue, actually I don’t understand what you are saying?
Just maybe, it’s time to say it.
Perpetual growth, and it’s cousin, “profits first, last and always”, is a garbage metric, and will never allow for a supportive, collaborative, mutually beneficial employment opportunity where owners and principals do “well enough” and get to see their ideas manifested through the efforts of those they employ. All while their employees make a good living and enjoy long healthy careers, being rewarded for their added experience, as time moves on. .
It has non business owning”investors”, believing that if their chosen investment doesn’t show growth, every single quarter, they are backing the wrong horse.
Sadly, that’s extended its tentacles into the broader Conservative community, and creates just the dichotomy Justin alluded to early on, that of the beneficiaries of unionization, now finding fault with it.
Nothing is perfect. But unions do work, as long as their focus is on their members rather than their profitability.
See where the circle connects behind your backs? Plenty of Union Bosses are simply R’s in D clothing.
I’ve been in business for myself, close to 20 years. I’ve never even paid attention to my numbers. If my bills are paid, and I’m still solvent, it was a good month.
If my bills are all paid, and I am above ground, able to ride, hike, paddle, and otherwise enjoy the outdoors? It was a good year.
If I spent hours pouring over profitability analyses, spread sheets, stressing over the fact that this February didn’t outpace last, and how can that be? I’d already either have hypertension, and heart disease, or have put a bullet in my head since the only way to make a million dollars in the bike industry is to start with two million.
Perpetual growth is bullshit, and boomers need to get the fuck over themselves and get out of the way. Retire, get out of politics, move to Florida or Texas where people like you already live, and die in obscurity as it was intended.
My god am I sick of the entitled Boomer Billionaire Wannabe Club whiners. This country has become a Oligarchical shithole ever since Reagan darkened the POTUS door with his trickle down fairy tales.
“Perpetual growth is bullshit, and boomers need to get the fuck over themselves and get out of the way. Retire, get out of politics, move to Florida or Texas where people like you already live, and die in obscurity as it was intended.
My god am I sick of the entitled Boomer Billionaire Wannabe Club whiners. This country has become a Oligarchical shithole ever since Reagan darkened the POTUS door with his trickle down fairy tales.”
Any chance you’d be willing to run for President? I’ll volunteer for the campaign.
So funny but true! I’ve seen this country go into a steady decline the past 42 yrs. because people have become so greedy. The working poor and middle class suffered tremendously. It’s time for more true co-ops and employee-owned businesses, then there wouldn’t be any need for unions… taking the whole idea of corruption in unions out of the conversation. People just don’t want to share a piece of the pie, and this is shown the world over and now we are seeing the results of it in the form of climate change. If we take care of each other and our environment we would be in the global mess we are in now and leaving for future generations both economically and environmentally.
Is this link a source for your argument? That’s funny. Those are some hard hitting news sources.
You judged something as either good or bad on the basis of where it comes from, or from whom it came.
This fallacy AVOIDS THE ARGUMENT by shifting focus onto something’s or someone’s origins. It’s similar to an ad hominem fallacy in that it leverages existing negative perceptions to make someone’s argument look bad, without actually presenting a case for why the argument itself lacks merit.
REI staff here; 27 years and counting; PT, FT, various stores, various positions. I am watching these developments with interest, as are, I’m certain, all my colleagues. I have a little Union experience, mostly positive, but don’t yet have an opinion one way or the other, and I think that our CEO, Eric Artz, gave a good response to this development. I can say that I have been proud of the corporate efforts during the pandemic to try and do right by us as staff, even if there have inevitably been some missteps along the way. Mostly I’ve felt a member of an excellent team doing tough, “essential” (ahem) work for our members trying to get outside during tough times. I also know that REI is not a monolithic experience for staff or members, or just consumers. Sometimes you get the grizzled vet like me who knows everything about what you’re looking for and other times you get someone new. Sometimes you have staff who feel used and abused by a micro-managing management team, and sometimes staff enjoy empathetic and supportive management. All our experiences are part of this whole. I am nervous about a union relationship fostering a more adversarial relationship within our Coop. My own relationships with management are not like this. There is always room for improvement in any organization. I’m not sure unionizing is the best way to accomplish this, but SoHo has voted it as their current choice for an employment relationship and I wish them the best. We are all watching to see how this develops. As a long-time member and staff, I want the best for each of us, and all of us moving forward. With matters like access to outdoor recreation and stewardship of public lands increasingly at risk over divisive politics, I hope we can find our way ahead in a manner we can all, staff and members, be proud to represent.
RJC, thanks for your candid comments from an experienced perspective. I’ve been ‘pro-labor’ since I was old enough to work, and growing up in WY that meant around 12 years old, off the books of course. I’m generally pro-union, although we need a clear eyed view acknowledging they are not always the solution. REI has consistently been ranked in the Top 50 (often top 10) places to work, with very high ratings for job satisfaction, pay and benefits. This decision was a head scratcher to me, and will watch this closely as it develops. Not sure what the workers at this location were not getting that a union will provide, since many comments were looking to go from “great” to “really great.”
Bummer that Canada’s Mountain Equipment Cooperative was purchased by the American private investment firm Kingswood Capital Management. The new owners kept the initialism MEC, but now it’s formally the Mountain Equipment Corporation (uh, MEC). Member co-ops are to be fair to their members (the owners), and the co-op employees, suppliers, and the environment. Corporations don’t necessarily have those same priorities. I worked for a co-op years ago (a credit union). Indeed, it was good to its members and employees. Sheesh, I hear some strong negative opinions about unions down there in The Excited States.
I do not know the concerns of the REI SOHO employees and why they’ve decided that unionization was their best option. Unions can be good and also not good. It’s up to them to decide and evaluate going forward.
There are some comments here judging REI leaders, profits, more money in their pockets, greed…and all that. I’d implore you to look at REI’s executive teams compensation. For a $3 billion a year company – it is very modest. The compensation is available on REI’s website / About REI / Financial Information and Disclosures / 2020 Executive Compensation / Summary Compensation Table / scroll all the way to the bottom.
or… https://www.rei.com/assets/about-rei/executive-compensation/2021-cda-for-2020-results/live.pdf
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