REI Workers Say Union Effort Has Prompted A Disciplinary Crackdown

Employers are free to punish workers for violating company policy, but not with the intention of ousting organizers or chilling a union drive. Whether such discipline is legal often boils down to whether or not it was meted out consistently to other workers in the past.

REI denies it’s trying to snuff out a labor campaign that has organized 10 of its 181 stores over the past two years. But the Washington-based retailer declined to share any data that would show whether or not PIPs have increased amid the union campaign, or at stores where union organizing has taken hold. Huffpost