The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ordered REI to reinstate a Eugene worker who was fired during a May 2023 unionization effort and pay her full back pay and other damages.
Union supporter Lindlee Hamlin — an 11-year REI bike shop employee — was terminated for clocking in more than seven minutes before her scheduled start time without a manager’s approval. Clocking in early was against store policy, but other workers said it was a common practice and hadn’t led to any discipline in other instances.
United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 555 had majority support on April 10, 2023 when it asked the NLRB to hold a union election. But by the time the election took place May 30, support had dwindled, and the union effort failed in a 20-26 vote.
An NLRB agent determined that REI fired Hamlin because of her union activity, that it illegally interrogated employees about the union campaign, and told them not to discuss whether recently fired employees would be able to vote in the union election.
On Jan. 14, 2026, a federal administrative law judge agreed: REI had used the timekeeping violations as a pretext to get rid of Hamlin, a member of the union organizing committee. Evidence showed that it had been common for employees to clock in early or late without consistent enforcement. REI’s own policy required four infractions within four weeks to trigger discipline, yet Hamlin was terminated for three.
When an employer’s anti-union conduct is so extreme that it causes a union effort to lose support and obstructs the ability to hold a fair election, the NLRB can order the employer to bargain with the union as if it had won the election. Local 555 asked the NLRB to take that step, but the judge declined. Instead, the judge ordered a new election.
It isn’t clear how — or even if — that election will proceed.
Most of the workers who were on the organizing committee no longer work for REI and several reached by the Labor Press declined to comment. Local 555 and the UFCW international also declined to comment on the case.
UFCW represents eight REI locations, and is bargaining alongside its semi-autonomous Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) division, which represents three REI locations.
Nearly four years after the first REI store unionized, no REI workers have a union contract yet. Last July, REI, UFCW, and RWDSU announced their intent to bargain store-level contracts for the 11 union stores by January 2026. But in early February, workers in the stores voted down a company contract offer by 98.5%. In a joint press statement Feb. 5, the two sides say they’ll continue to bargain.
