REI Union is calling for shoppers to boycott REI during the co-op’s Anniversary Sale, which runs May 15-25.
Since 2022, workers at 11 REI stores across the country have voted to join REI Union, which is affiliated with United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). But the union has yet to reach a contract with the company.
Rich Smith, communications director for UFCW Local 3000, says REI agreed to 25 parts of a first union contract but then walked away from negotiations over a $200,000 gap this March. That may be the equivalent of 100 hours of legal work by REI’s Morgan Lewis attorneys, who bill up to $2,000 per hour according to court records.
The union also says REI has abandoned its democratic co-op roots. REI members have the right to nominate themselves as candidates for the board, but changes to the bylaws in the early 2000s gave the sitting board the final authority over which candidates appear on the ballot. In the May 2025 REI board election, the existing board blocked two pro-union candidates from appearing on the ballot that was sent to REI co-op members, and instead sent members unopposed nominees for three positions. One of the rejected candidates was Tefere Gebre, chief program officer at Greenpeace USA — a former Southern California labor leader and the former number three official of the national AFL-CIO. The other was Shemona Moreno, executive director of the climate activist group 350 Seattle.
REI Union urged co-op members to reject the board’s handpicked slate, and in a stunning rejection of the board, its hand-picked slate went down to defeat.
Since then, the REI board moved its annual meeting from May to February, changed the co-op’s bylaws to allow board members to be appointed without a vote, reduced the annual member meeting to eight minutes long, and took away members’ right to ask questions at the annual meeting. Those changes were implemented last August during an agreed-upon six-month media blackout during union bargaining, a “non-disparagement” agreement that meant the union couldn’t inform the public.
The undemocratic changes follow years of increasing secrecy. REI stopped releasing the results of board votes in 2019, board minutes in 2022, and reports of executive compensation in 2025. The board is now packed with former executives from Exxon Mobil, Starbucks, and McKinsey.
Over 70,000 REI members have signed an online pledge to support a union boycott.
