REI Co-op Members Back Workers, Reject Board-Imposed Candidate Slate

At its annual membership meeting on May 8, REI Co-op received a wake-up call. All three candidates nominated by the board for vacant seats were rejected by REI’s membership.

An estimated 115,000 members of the nation’s largest consumer co-op voted to deny them their support. This was a victory for the over 600 unionized workers at 11 REI stores across the country, who collectively have formed the REI Union and are affiliated either with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) or Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). These workers have over the past three years voted for unionization and are currently fighting to win their first contract.

REI has a board of nine elected directors who serve for three-year terms in staggered elections. (A tenth unelected seat is held by the CEO). In January 2025, the REI Union backed two pro-worker environmental justice leaders for REI’s board—Tefere Gebre of Greenpeace USA and the AFL-CIO, and Shemona Moreno of the climate advocacy group 350 Seattle. REI members sent in over 10,000 conominations for Gebre and Moreno.

But when the ballot went live on March 3, Gebre and Moreno were not on it. Instead, the board nominated just three people for the three vacant seats: two incumbent directors, Elizabeth Huebner and Michael McAfee, and one new nominee, Monica Schwartz.

The REI Union responded by urging REI members to vote “withhold” on this slate—in essence, a “no” vote—which is precisely what happened. The union hopes the vote makes two things clear to REI: It’s time to negotiate with its workers’ union to reach a fair contract, and it’s time to start listening to co-op members again.

Unionization at REI

Workers at the REI SoHo store in New York City were the first to unionize in March 2022. Since then, workers at 10 more REI stores across the country have voted to unionize, most recently in Greensboro, NC, in January 2025.

“REI workers genuinely care about getting folks outside,” Claire Chang, who has worked at REI SoHo for eight years, told NPQ. She says that without stable hours or income, and with increased understaffing, workers can’t provide good service.

The union hopes the vote makes two things clear to REI: It’s time to negotiate…to reach a fair contract, and it’s time to start listening to co-op members again.

Moreover, a recent report from the National Employment Law Project found fewer Black and Latine workers at REI compared to the retail sector overall. Surveyed Black and Latine workers also reported getting fewer hours than their White counterparts and reported that racial discrimination is widespread at the co-op. In that report, 64 percent of surveyed REI workers said it was becoming a worse place to work.

Despite its progressive image, REI continues to deny raises and bonuses to unionized workers, a violation of labor law that resulted in a complaint issued by the National Labor Relations Board in March 2025.

The union stated that REI’s leadership has stalled contract negotiations over the past three years. Since hiring the infamous union-busting law firm Morgan Lewis two years ago, union leaders say REI has often sent outside lawyers to the bargaining table without anyone from REI’s leadership. Workers at unionized REI stores have organized outreach campaigns, rallied, and have even gone on strike over the last three years, alleging that REI’s leadership has failed to negotiate a contract in good faith.

Declining Member Control

Faced with management intransigence, the REI Union turned to leveraging the support of its co-op’s members. They soon learned that REI had whittled away at member control over the years, consolidating decision-making power on senior management and the board.

At one time, REI Co-op members were able to petition to run for the board, but now candidates only make it on the ballot if nominated by the incumbent board. Previously, REI held annual in-person membership meetings, but that hasn’t happened since the pandemic. REI used to post the minutes of its quarterly board meetings, but has not done so since February 2023 (link courtesy of the Internet Archive Wayback Machine) and has taken down the webpage where minutes were once posted.

The exclusion of Gebre and Moreno from the ballot, and the decision to give members only three options for three open seats, was yet another restriction of member voice. The union felt that the Vote No campaign against all board candidates was the membership’s way to deliver a clear message to REI.

“There are a lot of buckets where power exists at REI: with the CEO, with the board, with the workers, and with co-op members,” Graham Gale, a former REI SoHo worker and current RWDSU organizer, told NPQ.

“Through the Vote No campaign, we were able to engage workers, and we were able to engage co-op members in a way we’d never done before. Then we were able to have workers and members engage directly with REI’s CEO and board.”

How the Union Defeated the Board Slate

The campaign was a resounding success, both in rejecting the board-backed candidates and in generating engagement from REI’s co-op members. While REI has not released a full vote count, the union estimates that about 115,000 people voted to “withhold” on the three candidates. REI has not released a board election vote count since 2019, when about 65,500 people voted in the election. Although REI blocks full transparency around board elections, it seems clear that this year it saw a marked increase in member participation.

The campaign was a resounding success, both in rejecting the board-backed candidates and in generating engagement from co-op members.

Both organizers who worked on the Vote No campaign, Gale of RWDSU and Althea Brennan of UFCW Local 5, believe that the campaign’s success came down to a combination of “110 percent effort” from the union and the growth of an organic movement among REI members.

The union developed robust communications, including social media content with environmentalist and drag artist Pattie Gonia. They also organized political support, including a letter signed by 63 members of Congress urging REI to negotiate in good faith.

Natural momentum blossomed from these efforts. One REI member in Berkeley told Brennan that they asked their 1,200-person sea-kayaking club to vote “no.” And on REI’s official Instagram account, nearly every post in recent months received comments from members upset about the co-op’s union busting and shift toward corporatism over cooperativism.

Part of what drove members’ dissatisfaction with REI’s leadership was their recent decision to endorse President Donald Trump’s pick for interior secretary, Doug Burgum, who supports the private use of public lands, including by fossil fuel companies. Although REI retracted the endorsement after public pressure, their initial decision was evidence for many members that the co-op has strayed far from its mission.

Co-op Movement Stands in Solidarity with REI Workers

Members of the cooperative movement have called out REI’s “co-op washing”—using the co-op name while abandoning cooperative principles.

“Cooperatives started as a working-class movement,” John McNamara, REI member and co-executive director of the Northwest Cooperative Development Center, told NPQ. “Co-ops are about building strong communities and protecting human dignity at work. It’s really detrimental that REI seems not to understand that.”

More than 40 co-ops signed a petition calling out REI’s “betrayal of basic Co-op values.” In April, members of the Union Co-ops Council of the US Federation of Worker Co-ops organized a Co-op Day of Action at REI, distributing flyers at unionized REI stores in Berkeley, San Francisco, New York City, Boston, Colorado Springs, and Cleveland.

Members Reassess REI

Many REI members have been forced to reevaluate their beliefs about the co-op. A union organizer and ultramarathoner in California, Alison Criscitiello’s first job in high school was at a REI store in Massachusetts.

REI is not the first or only cooperative to stray from its values.…But the Vote No campaign shows that members can organize to regain control of their co-op.

Until now, Criscitiello thought that being a consumer co-op meant REI was a values-driven business and a good employer: “I was deeply disturbed by REI’s union busting and by the lack of democracy in the board election,” Criscitiello told NPQ.

Criscitiello added that, hopefully, REI will now listen to its member-owners. “I hope it’s a wake-up call. REI should know that the consumer-members shop there because of the mission.”

Katie Mae Seguin, an environmental communications specialist in Michigan, told NPQ that she believed REI was guided by a commitment to its people, but REI’s union busting has punctured this perception: “It felt like REI was basking in the reputation imbued by the co-op title, while quietly eroding workers’ efforts to improve their workplace.”

What’s Next?

Many members and workers feel that REI is at a crossroads—either continue down the path of corporatization and union busting or reconnect to its cooperative values.

“It’s clear that workers and members want change,” Samuel Wirt, a unionized worker at REI Berkeley told NPQ.

“I’m hopeful that with this new CEO in place, REI will see that the path they’re on isn’t sustainable,” said Chang. “One of the ways they can rebuild trust is to come to the table with us and negotiate a fair contract.”

REI’s new CEO, Mary Beth Laughton, conceded at REI’s virtual annual member meeting on May 8 that “we have some work to do to regain the full trust of our community.” Laughton said the board election results were “a clear sign” that REI should “actively seek out and listen to what our members and employees are telling us.”

For its part, the union is encouraging members to write directly to Laughton to tell her what changes they want to see. The REI Union and its member allies continue to demand that REI stops union busting, bargains in good faith, and repays unionized workers the raises and bonuses that were illegally taken from them.

Lessons for Co-ops

REI is not the first nor the only cooperative to stray from its values—or take power away from its members. But the Vote No campaign shows that members can organize to regain control of their co-op.

Even with its weakened democracy, REI’s bylaws still maintained a path for membership to block the de facto appointed candidates. The campaign that the REI Union built allowed REI members to exercise this power.

This offers another important lesson—co-ops can learn from and even partner with unions to build power to achieve common goals.

“People want to contribute to something bigger than themselves,” said Wirt. “We gave them a place to put that energy into something productive.”

The Vote No campaign demonstrates that the interests of co-op consumers and workers can be aligned. When workers and co-op members work together, they win.