REI Members Reject Company’s Hand-Picked Board Candidates
HuffPost
This year’s board vote shows REI shoppers aren’t pleased with how the retailer has battled a union campaign.
Union supporters delivered a powerful message to REI this week when the cooperative’s members rejected a batch of candidates for its board of directors.
The existing board had hand-picked three nominees for the ballot, passing over a pair of union-backed challengers who called for pro-worker voices on the board. The union responded with a “vote no” campaign that urged members to shoot down the board’s preferred candidates as too “corporate” and lacking a commitment to union rights.
That campaign succeeded, with REI announcing at its annual meeting Thursday that none of the candidates had garnered enough support to secure a seat. The failed trio included two incumbents who were up for reelection to the board.
“We are disappointed with the outcome, especially because we are losing two incumbent directors who have been valuable contributors to the co-op for a number of years and one promising new director,” the board’s chair, Chris Carr, said in a statement.
An REI spokesperson told HuffPost the company does not release the full voting results, since the outcome “is the primary issue.” But the union claimed it prompted more than 100,000 members to vote against the candidates, which could have led to a resounding rejection.
