“Some of the more progressive employers are also some of the worst union busters that workers have … [+]
By an overwhelming majority, retail employees at the REI Co-Op in its Manhattan SoHo store voted to joining the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU).
In an in-person vote conducted by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), 86% of the 116 REI workers chose to have the RWDSU on their side in contract negotiations. All workers at the store, including full- and part-time sales staff, will now have union representation.
The REI vote comes on the heels of Starbucks employees in three New York locations and one in Mesa, AZ choosing union representation. While only a handful of Starbucks’ nearly 9,000 company-owned locations are affected, employees in more than 100 locations across 26 states reportedly have filed to join Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union.
Apple
And currently, mail-in votes are being counted at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, AL affecting more than 6,000 workers. In addition, workers at two New York Amazon warehouses are following suit to hold a union vote.
Progressive, repressive companies
These four companies share a progressive agenda when it comes to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, yet they are repressive in regards to unions in their workplace, even though they recognize workers’ right to organize. The retailers don’t want anything to do with unions.
They argue a union will get in the middle and come between them and their employees. A spokesperson with Starbucks presented the company’s position: “From the beginning, we’ve been clear in our belief that we are better together as partners, without a union between us, and that conviction has not changed.”
Similar talking points come from the other companies. Yet the fact that employees feel the need to unionize argues otherwise.
“Some of the more progressive employers are also some of the worst union busters that workers have faced,” shared Chelsea Conner, a RWDSU spokesperson, speaking from Alabama where she is working to organize the second Amazon warehouse workers vote after the first one was overturned by the NLRB on findings of corporate misconduct.
In the current re-run election, Amazon is facing new charges of bad actions that are prohibiting “free and fair” elections. It’s allegedly removed union literature from breakrooms, instituted a new workplace rule limited workers’ access to the facility for no more than 30 minutes before and after their shift, and forced workers to attend “Captive-Audience” meetings to hear anti-union messages which the RWDSU argues are coercive.
Amazon for its part said through spokesperson Barbara Agrait: “It’s our employees’ choice whether or not to join a union. It always has been. If the union vote passes, it will impact everyone at the site which is why we host regular informational sessions and provide employees the opportunity to ask questions and learn about what this could mean for them and their day-to-day life working at Amazon.”
As much as these companies don’t want unions in and as hard as they fight to keep unions out, those efforts may ultimately backfire.
If customers suspect their favorite retailers are not living up to their values with regards to workplace practices and employee treatment, they are bound to question if the companies are living up to their other values too, those same values that drew them as customers in the first place.
REI’s union face-off
The Seattle-based REI is particularly vulnerable in this regard. Organized as a co-op, not a traditional corporation, its governance document states it is member owned and has been so since its founding in 1938.
REI president and CEO Eric Artz manages the company’s day-to-day affairs and answers to a board of directors which is “accountable to the co-op membership for the long-term viability and success of the co-op.”
Anyone can shop at REI, but its co-op members, of which it claims more than 20 million, get special privileges and rewards for a lifetime $30 membership.
Currently it operates 174 locations in 41 states and the District of Columbia. In the most recently posted letter to members the company states it brought in $2.75 million in revenues and gave back $112.4 million in member rewards and $6.3 million to its non-profit partners in 2020.
In the letter, Artz reiterated, “Our co-op was founded on the principle of individuals coming together for the common good.”
This statement flies in the face of what the REI workers in its Soho store said they experienced. Workers claimed the company classified some as part-time even though they worked 40 hours per week, thus denying them healthcare benefits. They also wanted REI to pay a “living wage,” which in NYC is about $22 per hour or some $3 short of the $19 per hour a new hire makes. The company did not respond to call for comment before this posting
After workers’ request for voluntary recognition of their union was denied, the workers claimed the company “deployed textbook union-busting tactics, meant to intimidate and scare workers out of voting Union Yes.”
The company would argue it was simply giving employees all the information they needed to make an informed decision on its Our.REI.com website. It included a 25-minute podcast with Artz presenting the company’s case in a question-and-answer session hosted by Wilma Wallace, the company’s chief diversity and social impact officer.
Artz started by stating unions are “important and valuable and they play a vital part in supporting the rights of workers across many workplaces, companies and industries.”
But for REI, he said, “I do not believe a union will serve our REI employees’ best interests.” And he added, “The presence of union representation will impact our ability to communicate and work directly with our employees and resolve concerns at the speed the world is moving.”
He did, however, have a mea-culpa moment during the podcast. “The fact that we’re in this spot in SoHo in this moment means something didn’t work. If a group of employees needed to seek different representation for their interests and to speak for them, then I failed in some fundamental way. I know that, I see that, I take responsibility for that, and I own that.”
Coming next, Artz and the company will have to live up to their real or imagined failures as they prepare to sit down in contract negotiations with RWDSU.
“The workers of REI SoHo are ready to negotiate a strong contract that will allow them to uphold the co-op’s progressive values. With a seat at the table, workers can make REI safe and sustainable for years to home,” RWDSU president Stuart Applebaum said in a statement.
Retail workers demand a say
Momentum is building for retail workers to have a proverbial “seat at the table” after all they’ve come through during the pandemic. Retailers first felt the sting after 7.7 million retail workers walked off the job last year. That’s up 38% over 2020. And from May through December 2020, each month ended with over 1 million retail job openings, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Retailers have not faced such an employment crisis in recent history and the retail workers who remain can’t help but feel the balance of power is shifting.
Newly empowered, retail workers are starting to turn the tables on their employers and if the companies can’t make room for them voluntarily, they may have no alternative but to turn to unions, like RWDSU which currently represents Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, H&H, Zara and Guitar Center employees among others.
Overall, union representation in the retail trade is low respective to other private sector employers. Only 5% of retail employees are union members or whose jobs are covered by a union or employee association contract, compared with 7% for all private-sector employers. But if current trends in retail continue, those numbers are sure to rise.
A day of reckoning is coming for retailers if they don’t listen and learn about what is going on in the workplace and why some employees feel the need to join a union to finally bring change.
Note: The number of retail job openings from BLS was updated, March 3 @ 7:50 p.m.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamdanziger/2022/03/03/first-starbucks-now-rei-next-amazon-and-apple-the-movement-to-unionize-retail-workers-picks-up/