REI workers in Berkeley, California, have shaped the out of doors retailer’s second union, extending a profitable streak for organized labor at largely non-union corporations.
Staff on the Berkeley retailer voted 56 to 38 in favor of becoming a member of the United Meals and Business Staff (UFCW) union in a mail-in election this month, based on a vote rely held Thursday by the Nationwide Labor Relations Board. Workers at REI’s retailer within the SoHo neighborhood of New York Metropolis had been the primary to unionize earlier this 12 months.
“As we have now stated all through this course of, REI believes in the fitting of each worker to vote for or in opposition to union illustration,” the corporate stated in an announcement following the vote rely. “We totally supported the vote course of in Berkeley and can proceed to assist our workers going ahead.”
The organizing success at REI follows different latest, notable labor victories at Amazon, Starbucks, Apple and Dealer Joe’s, all of which have seen their employees unionize for the primary time in latest months. Labor officers have reported a surge in election petitions this 12 months as extra employees attempt to come collectively to discount collectively.
Bloomberg Legislation reported new information earlier this week exhibiting that unions gained 639 elections between January and June of this 12 months, labor’s finest exhibiting for the primary half of the 12 months in nearly 20 years. Nonetheless, union membership remains to be hovering close to a historic low, with a mere one in ten employees belonging to a union final 12 months, based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
REI, which is structured as a buyer cooperative, has greater than 170 shops across the nation, lots of them in liberal city facilities the place union assist could be excessive. Given the success of the primary two campaigns, the corporate could nicely face organizing efforts at different shops within the close to future.
The employees in SoHo organized with the Retail, Wholesale and Division Retailer Union, an affiliate of the UFCW, which is able to symbolize the employees in Berkeley. Each unions have a protracted historical past of representing employees within the retail, grocery and meatpacking industries.
Having gained their elections, the SoHo and Berkeley employees now face the extra daunting activity of making an attempt to discount a primary contract. It may well take years for employees to safe a collective bargaining settlement after efficiently unionizing, and a few by no means handle to take action. Though they're separate unions, the 2 teams could coordinate their methods and calls for with the corporate on the bargaining desk.
Most corporations have been combating these new organizing efforts, and REI has been no completely different, regardless of its progressive popularity. The corporate produced a extensively mocked podcast earlier this 12 months aimed toward discouraging workers from unionizing (the episode started with Indigenous land acknowledgments by the audio system).
The Berkeley workers created a petition calling on the corporate to “cease the union-busting,” saying REI was utilizing “textbook” techniques to “scare” them.
“They’ve advised us our relationship with administration should change, our current advantages and retirement will go away, and a union consultant can be required to attend our opinions,” the petition learn. “They even advised somebody that they would want the union’s approval to go on trip.”
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