Seen on youtube a short video about REI poor sales and financial trouble and a union focused on bargaining

 The video by The Outgear Review of october 26, 2025. Not a word about the union but plenty about the bathrooms of the New York city store and a very short recap about the present financial problems.

REI still has not yet published the "audit" for 2025. See on the page Reports and disclosures. The 2024 financial statement was signed by KPMG on march 24, 2025 (pdf). 

On instagram the union reps insist on returning to bargaining. I think they miss the real goal that should be taking over the board of directors as it absolutely cannot be trusted as they have experienced in the previous years.

If you go to the UFCW 3000 union website you see immediately they are focused on collective bargaining but REI is a different beast: a cooperative where the membership is supposed to rule via annual election of the board of directors. But a very small clique has highjacked the board more than 20 years ago and has remained in place by fixing the bylaws for its own absolute power: by selecting who can be a candidate, then after having its candidates defeated by changing the bylaws and depriving the membership of its most basic raight to elect board members. 

The unions got it right when they organized a withhold the vote campaign in 2025 and defeated the board picked candidates. But they got it totally wrong when they did not protest the illegal change in the bylaws to bypass an election for coopted board members and then accepting not to "weigh in" (?) in the 2026 election. 

There is still time to fix this by forcing (probably lawsuits and pressure form the WA legislature) REI to amend the bylaws (although they need to include the opening to candidates outside of the ones picked by the board) by forcing the 3 coopted unelected members to face an election and competition from other candidates.

The goal should be to take over the board of directors by supporting a team of progressive entrepreneurs and including workers reps. The board of directors compensation should be reduced and a detailed chart of the hours spent working for the board published.

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