This is a frustrating one. It’s a helluva lot easier to boycott, say, Starbucks for being anti-union because there are so many alternatives. Outdoor recreation is a much more niche business, and REI has a lot of great (read: quality for low price) store-brand products. Plus historically REI has always felt like “one of the good (or at least better) ones,” with its customer-oriented policies and responsiveness to issues (example: their “fuck Black Friday, we’re closing all the stores, go enjoy a hike with family” policy).

I wonder if this is a common situation at any recently unionized business, rather than something specific to REI. It is sad though; REI always gave me the impression that the business was better than this.

It’s a coop, how do the employees go about retaking the power that they’re supposed to have?

My understanding is the coop shouldn’t need a union because the union should be built in to their structure. Where did it go wrong?

the real brain worms is me immediately reading roughly enough items

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Workers at stores in New York, California, Chicago and Boston, among others, filed a total of 80 complaints with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) seeking to force the company to bargain with their unions.

Sumner, Washington-based REI, also known by its full name Recreational Equipment, said in a statement that it disagrees with the claims in the complaints.

“We are committed and engaged in good-faith bargaining with stores that have chosen union representation and will continue to participate fully in the negotiating process,” the company said.

The company, which has about 180 stores and 15,000 employees nationwide, has said that recent changes to job titles and workers’ schedules were unrelated to union organizing.

“Instead of acknowledging our collective voice and our right to form a union, we faced strong opposition from management in the form of retaliation, misinformation, and disregard for basic labor law,” said Anni Saludo, a sales specialist at an REI store in Durham, North Carolina.

The complaints come after employees at REI stores in Chicago, Boston and Minnesota staged walkouts last month to protest layoffs and changes to working conditions.

The original article contains 369 words, the summary contains 184 words. Saved 50%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!