As background, please see Monday’s assertion from the Union, Tuesday’s media briefing recording with staff, and Thursday’s ULP submitting and letter from U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown. 

The worker-led unionization effort within the Beachwood suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, has been underway for over a yr. Nonetheless, staff cite the overwhelming win at REI, Inc. in SoHo, New York, as having put the “battery in our backs” to push to a majority of card signers and file for election. On January 11, 2023, a delegation of REI, Inc. staff on the Ohio retailer formally filed for a union election with Area 8 of the Nationwide Labor Relations Board (NLRB) looking for illustration with the Retail, Wholesale and Division Retailer Union (RWDSU). This got here on the heels of two shops successful their union elections in each the flagship SoHo, New York, and in Berkeley, California shops. Regardless of REI, Inc.’s each effort to union bust coast-to-coast, staff filed for a union election in Ohio once more. 

Staff on the Ohio retailer hoped they would not have to endure the identical union-busting marketing campaign their colleagues on the coasts did, however union-busting has already begun on the retailer, with staff being requested to affix conferences as a lot as twice a day. 

Final week, REI, Inc. refused to succeed in a Stipulated Settlement with the Retail, Wholesale, and Division Retailer Union (RWDSU) to maneuver forward with a union election on the Ohio retailer. The Cleveland workplace of the Nationwide Labor Relations Board (NLRB) commenced a listening to at present, Friday, February 3, 2023. The listening to course of, which is usually a prolonged distraction and delay, stifling staff’ voices, is one thing staff didn’t should endure throughout the prior two REI, Inc. union elections. The result, which can not come for weeks, delaying the election, will decide if, when, and the way staff can proceed. 

The Union seeks to signify all non-supervisory staff on the retailer, a presumptively applicable bargaining unit. However REI has put forth meritless assertions to delay the election. First, REI claims that gross sales leads are supervisors beneath the regulation and due to this fact can not unionize; second, that staff within the store part of the shop don’t share a group of curiosity with the shop’s retail staff; and third, that sure staff are “informal” staff and shouldn’t vote. 

RWDSU vehemently disagrees with REI’s objections. It’s particularly galling as a result of, because the Firm unnecessarily fights RWDSU in Ohio, it’s at present bargaining contracts with staff holding these similar classifications on the SoHo, New York, and Berkley, California shops. REI’s hypocrisy is union-busting plain and easy and is a meek try and exclude greater than half of the proposed bargaining unit from being eligible to vote.

REI additionally seeks to dismiss the Union’s election petition outright, citing an NLRB case from 1962 involving a union election within the South the place the employer made inflammatory racial appeals towards unionization. How this pertains to the Union’s petition in Ohio in 2023 is anybody’s guess. Nonetheless, RWDSU is incensed that REI would make such an implication in its NLRB submitting and decrease the racial and labor struggles within the South throughout that interval.

When profitable, the RWDSU will signify roughly 55 present NLRA-eligible staff within the Beachwood, Ohio, retailer in contract negotiations. The shop at present operates at a 60% staffing stage of its full capability, probably growing that quantity to over 70. The Union seeks to signify all non-supervisory staff on the retailer, which incorporates all full- and part-time gross sales specialists, technical specialists, visible presentation specialists, transport and receiving specialists, licensed technicians and mechanics, operations leads, gross sales leads, and transport and receiving leads.