Outdoor retailer REI is losing its way, and its board needs to plot a new course | Opinion
Coming from a background that is underrepresented outdoors, I became an REI member to get their incredible outfitting help in preparation for a trip to Yosemite. My love of hiking and snowboarding brought me to Whatcom County, where I went to work at REI’s Bellingham store. I built up my own gear supplies and developed expertise to help prepare customers for their excursions, and am now a senior shop mechanic overseeing the work we do on equipment like bikes, skis and snowboards. Things have really changed at REI, for employees and customers alike, and not for the better.
When I first started, we had morning huddles with dozens of staff where we could discuss anything, ask questions and learn pro tips to share with customers. Now the morning meeting is a handful of people to talk numbers. No knowledge-sharing, no overlap with co-workers. We’re often left to figure things out on our own, which creates more stress on staff that’s already stretched thin. The “green vests” used to be encouraged to educate and train new employees. That’s not happening anymore.
In Bellingham, workers voted to unionize almost two years ago, but our asks of management to address our concerns have been blocked by REI’s representatives from the expensive union-busting firm Morgan Lewis. REI has withheld regular annual raises from ours and other unionized stores. This year they’re withholding our bonus. REI tells employees that one of the company’s core values is respect and integrity, but our fight for a contract that walks that talk has gone nowhere.
This year REI laid off hundreds of employees who provided experiences, tours and classes for members and stepped away from equipment like snowboards, kayaks, and cross country skis. They aren’t valuing experienced staff with the expertise our customers are looking for. Instead they want us to push sales of fanny packs and fad products like Stanley insulated tumblers. In New York City, ski shop employees of the REI SoHo store were on strike protesting hazardous working conditions. REI is no longer supplying respirators from our Bellingham shop, where we work with an array of hazardous chemicals.
A recent report from the University of Massachusetts revealed that REI sources from factories in Asia and Central America that violate labor and human rights. Some of these abuse claims include forced overtime, sub-poverty wages, poor working conditions, and discrimination against pregnant and postpartum women. What happened to REI’s commitment to Fair Trade products and practices?
REI is the largest consumer co-op in the country, with 24 million members. True co-ops are democratically governed by all of their member-owners, but REI does not treat all owner-members equally. REI’s Board bans members who also work at REI from serving on the Board of Directors. Today’s REI Board is largely made up of former corporate executives, sets their own compensation, hand-picks who gets to be on our ballots, and bans employees from running for the Board.
REI staff have the expertise about products and what our customers need that are important to making smart business decisions. We should have a voice. A bill, HB 1635, could make that happen by requiring large Washington businesses designated as consumer cooperatives, also known as co-ops, to include employees on their boards of directors.
This year I was excited to join thousands of other REI employees and members to support an REI member and leading environmental advocate who applied to run for the REI board. Local climate justice leader Shemona Moreno, executive director of 350 Seattle, pledged to be a voice for REI workers, sustainability and diversity if elected to the board. The board election is open for member voting on March 3. If Moreno is not on the ballot it means REI has blocked her.
Pacific Northwest REI members can help the company find its way back to its co-op roots. We can withhold our votes from REI’s hand-picked slate of corporate candidates on the board election ballot. We can support HB 1635 to require large co-ops to include workers on their boards. And we can call on REI to practice what it preaches around environmental protection and valuing its hard working employees. Until REI walks its talk, they are a co-op in name only.
Tini Alexander is a UFCW 3000 member and a senior shop mechanic at REI’s Bellingham store.