REI boycott shows how retail workers are fighting stalled contract talks

REI’s Anniversary Sale became a labor fight, not just a shopping event, when union workers urged customers to boycott the May 15 to 25 promotion over stalled contract talks. The union said REI had not reached agreements with unionized stores since bargaining began in 2022, and it framed the boycott as a response to a company that was moving too slowly on a first contract.

REI said in a May 2 statement that it had been bargaining with UFCW and RWDSU locals during April 28 to 30 over agreements covering the 11 unionized REI stores. By May 20, KQED reported that no contracts had been reached. The union said 70,000 co-op members had already pledged not to shop if REI kept bargaining in bad faith, turning a seasonal sale into a public test of whether pressure from customers could force movement at the table.

That matters for Dollar General because this is what retail-worker pressure looks like when complaints stop being private and become public disruption. REI is a different company with a different labor structure, but the mechanics are familiar: slow negotiations, worker frustration, and a management response that tries to hold the line while protecting the brand. For store-level employees, the lesson is that stalled talks can spill into the customer side of the business fast, especially when workers can mobilize members, shoppers, and media attention around a specific date and a specific promise of lost sales.

Dollar General has already faced its own national scrutiny on the floor conditions that matter most to associates. On July 11, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a corporate-wide OSHA settlement requiring safety improvements at stores across the country and a $12 million penalty. Reuters reported that the case involved alleged hazards including blocked exits, fire extinguishers, and unsafe storage. For DG workers, that mix of safety enforcement and labor pressure is not abstract: it is the same operational ground where short staffing, rushed stocking, and weak oversight can become injury risks.

Wages remain part of the same picture. Earlier coverage cited estimates that 92% of Dollar General workers earned under $15 an hour, a number that helps explain why labor tension persists even in stores that are not unionized. In a chain built around thin margins and heavy reliance on front-line labor, REI’s boycott showed how quickly dissatisfaction can move from the break room to the storefront when workers believe management is not moving.