A Growing Union Campaign Has Put REI's Progressive Image On Trial

With nine stores and counting now organized, workers say the popular cooperative risks damaging its reputation in a prolonged contract fight.

REI workers from stores around the country showed up uninvited at their corporate office in Issaquah, Washington, last Friday. The signs they were carrying made it clear to the white-collar employees looking down from the windows above that they weren’t there to tour the campus.

“Where the hell’s our merit pay?” one sign asked.

“Ask me about my raise (REI took it away!)” read another.

Plenty of REI’s devoted customers ― “members,” in company parlance, since REI is structured as a cooperative ― would have been surprised to see disaffected employees protesting such a beloved retailer. But a growing union campaign that has so far organized nine stores and counting is testing the progressive reputation that REI built through its environmental and conservation advocacy over the years.

Workers who are trying to improve their jobs through a union contract say the cooperative is failing to live up to its values and damaging its reputation in the process.