Headlines

Workers Vote in Favor of Union at California REI Store

REI’s New York SoHo store was the first to unionize back in March

Published

2 years ago

August 29, 2022

VMSD Staff

Workers Vote in Favor of Union at California REI Store — A look inside REI's Seattle store. Photography: Courtesy of REI

A look inside REI’s Seattle store. Photography: Courtesy of REI

Specialty retailer REI (Kent, Wash.) saw its second store unionize Friday, with workers of REI’s Berkeley, Calif., store voting to join United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5 of San Jose, Calif.

In March, an REI store in New York City’s SoHo district was the first of the retailer’s stores to unionize.

Over the past few weeks, employees at the 1338 San Pablo Ave. store participated in a mail-in ballot election to determine whether they would be represented by the union. UFCW5 currently represents 30,000 workers in northern California. The final results were 56 votes for union representation and 38 against, according to the National Labor Relations Board, who oversaw the election.

In an REI-issued statement, the company responded to it workers’ decision to seek representation: “As we have said throughout this process, REI believes in the right of every employee to vote for or against union representation. We fully supported the vote process in Berkeley and will continue to support our employees going forward.”

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