Co-Ops In The News
Huffington Post: REI Workers Test The Retailer’s Co-Op Identity
Unionized employees want to change the storied retailer's direction. But they'll have to get through the "member-elected" board first. Cottrell, a 70-year-old employee at REI’s store in Bellingham, Washington. “They’re cherry-picking who they want.”
Nonprofit Quarterly: REI Workers Look to Shake up Co-op’s Board Amid Push for a First Contract
REI has nine elected board members, who serve staggered three-year terms. This year, the REI Union is backing the campaigns of two nonprofit leaders as candidates—Shemona Moreno, executive director of 350 Seattle, and Tefere Gebre, chief program officer at Greenpeace USA—in hopes of…
Press Release: New Bill Would Ensure Washington Co-Ops Are True to Their Democratic…
Today Washington State Representative Cindy Ryu introduced HB 1635 requiring large Washington businesses designated as consumer cooperatives, also known as co-ops, to include employees on their boards of directors. State Senator Javier Valdez is expected to introduce a companion bill later
Tacoma News Tribune: REI Sells Itself as a Co-Op. But It Mistreats Workers Like a Corporation
Many of us make careful choices about where we spend our money, whether it’s holiday gifts, everyday essentials or special supplies for the activities we love to do. Are we buying goods and services from companies that align with our values, or, are we inadvertently supporting businesses whose practices…
The Seattle Times: REI Members, Vote for Board Directors Who Reflect Co-Op Values
REI is straying far from its co-op roots and mountaineer founders’ vision. Just this week REI announced it was laying off 180 full-time and 248 part-time employees with outdoor recreation expertise they provide to customers through tours and classes. The company touts its commitment to ethical and…
Women’s Wear Daily: REI Alleged to Use Overseas Suppliers That Violate Labor and Human Rights
A new report alleges that REI uses contractors that violate labor and human rights in Southeast and East Asia and Central America. [...] Poor working conditions and violations of workers’ rights were described as “widespread” at REI’s supplier factories and forced labor allegations included workers…
University of Mass Amherst: Beneath REI’s Green Sheen: Union
Busting, Debt Bondage, and…
REI’s CEO Eric Artz assures co-op members that REI is “a different kind of company… One where people care about each other as human beings,” but what we find is that REI sources from factories in Asia and Central America characterized by serious systemic human rights abuses that warrant immediate…
Eight workers at the Soho location of REI walked off the job this week, protesting work conditions in the ski repair shop that they say are hazardous to their health. The workers at REI’s bike and ski repair shop earlier this year had raised concerns about health risks from chemical exposure, prompting an OSHA…
Modern Retail: REI Repair Shop Workers are Going on Strike Over Work Conditions
The Seattle Times: Struggling REI Cuts Hundreds of Employees, Axes Tour and Events Business
The Issaquah-based co-op will lay off 180 full-time and 248 part-time employees with the move, according to an email from CEO Eric Artz sent to employees Wednesday. Sixty-seven Washington-based workers will be affected. [...] “REI Management is putting profits over the very employees who make…
REI Co-op’s decision to shut down its Experiences business and lay off 428 employees caught many in the outdoor industry off guard. [...] REI has faced other headaches, too, as of late, including a recent walkout by ski shop workers in REI’s SoHo store in Manhattan, due to safety concerns….
Women's Wear Daily: REI’s Layoffs Sized Up by Outdoor Industry Authorities
Unionized workers at REI’s Soho store went on strike this week after the retailer doubled down on a new policy to stop providing respirators for potentially hazardous ski repair work and threatened ski shop workers with termination, the union representing the staffers alleged.
The Chief: SoHo REI Workers strike Over Safety Concerns, Threats of Termination
Texas Standard: Austin REI workers Accuse Management of Union Busting and Ignoring…
A group of workers at Austin’s downtown REI location presented a letter to store management accusing the store of using disciplinary action to intimidate workers involved with union activity – also known as union busting. Similar crackdowns have been reported at other stores with union move…
Co-op News: Worker Co-Ops Join Union Campaign Urging REI to ‘Bargain a Fair Contract’
The US Federation on Worker Cooperatives (USFWC) is backing a petition calling for Recreational Equipment Inc (REI) to ‘stop union-busting: bargain with employees for fair contracts’. Launched by REI Union, the petition accuses REI of betraying co-op values, alleging the outdoors retailer has…