New York City—Deep in the basement of REI’s flagship SoHo store, Emma Harris was organizing shelves one day in October when she noticed the box of respirators was missing. Harris, an REI employee of more than five years, was alarmed. She worked two floors underground waxing and repairing skis, using a blowtorch to melt plastic like candle wax. “Everyone can smell it,” Harris told me. “It smells like plastic burning.”

The fumes gave her a headache and a sore throat. Droplets of metal lubricant hung so thickly in the air that they bleached her clothes.

But it turned out that the workers’ respirators weren’t “missing.” REI had taken them away.

It’s hard to say for sure what toxic chemicals were in the air in the basement ski shop, and REI seemed to want to keep it that way. The company repeatedly insisted that tests had shown that the air was safe, but for months refused to hand over the results of those tests. (This isn’t legal: Workers have a right to know what they’re exposed to and to see any testing results.) In November, when workers tried to bring an industrial hygienist to perform air quality tests, REI barred her entry.

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Ski shop workers have been particularly at risk for exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), highly toxic “forever chemicals” linked to cancer and other serious health conditions. For decades, PFAS have been a common performance-enhancing additive to ski wax, and research shows that technicians who wax skis have among the highest blood levels of PFAS of any occupation.

In a statement, REI said the company stopped using ski wax with PFAS in 2020. But REI wouldn’t say what ski wax they do use or what’s in it.

REI projects an image of itself as the kind of company that liberals can feel good about—a store that’s “fully inclusive, anti-racist, and multicultural” and dedicated to helping people “live their most fulfilling life outdoors and engage them in the fight to protect it.” But in many ways the outdoorsy retail giant is just another big corporation, with gross sales of $3.8 billion and a former ExxonMobil executive as board chair.

While REI sells itself as better than other retailers, the way the company treats its workers is anything but. REI has made union busting standard procedure. REI held captive-audience meetings, made a union-busting podcast, and hired the same anti-union law firm that represents SpaceX and Trader Joe’s in cases claiming that the National Labor Relations Board is unconstitutional. REI may be a co-op, but it is a consumer co-op—not a worker-owned co-op—and workers are in effect disqualified from serving on the board of directors.

After years of providing respirators to ski shop workers, REI suddenly took them away during ongoing contract negotiations—a change in the status quo that is illegal under federal labor law. Ski shop workers in REI Union SoHo went on strike on December 4.

Last year, after receiving an OSHA citation, REI finally gave workers the manufacturers’ chemical disclosures for products used in the ski shop, which employers are legally required to provide. But one product was conspicuously missing from the dozens of pages of chemical disclosures that REI turned over: ski wax.

REI also paid more than $4,000 in OSHA fines for failing to provide proper information about respiratory protection. Instead of trying to make sure the respirators fit and were being used properly, REI just took them away, leaving workers to buy their own PPE and do fit testing on their personal time.

Two weeks after workers went out on strike in December, REI finally gave the union the results of the company’s air quality tests. Conducted on a single day in 2019, the tests measured only two things (total dust and paraffin wax fumes), which occupational health experts say is wholly inadequate. PFAS weren’t even tested.

“We are two floors down in a concrete cellar with one vent hood where we’re burning plastic for hours at a time with no real evidence or any data to show us that the air quality is sufficient and the ventilation is adequate,” said Harris.

REI did not respond to an interview request or a detailed list of questions. In a statement, the company said: “At REI, the health and safety of our employees is our top priority. We are committed to providing safe and healthy working environments across all our locations, including our SoHo flagship. As part of this commitment, REI conducts periodic air quality assessments, which have consistently shown that respirators are not required in this location under OSHA standards.”

Dr. Steven Markowitz, professor and director of the Barry Commoner Center for Health and the Environment at Queens College, noted that “OSHA is the floor, not the ceiling”—especially for a company like REI.

“The bigger picture is that for most chemicals that are used in products, we don’t really know the full spectrum of health effects,” said Markowitz, explaining that thousands of chemicals haven’t been fully studied. Although one product used at REI contained a chemical known to cause asthma, said Markowitz, many unknowns remained. “For many chemicals, there’s an incomplete understanding of their toxicity, so what should we do in the face of that uncertainty and lack of research? Well, we should err on the side of protecting people.”

REI SoHo was the first location to unionize in early 2022, with workers voting 88 to 14 in favor. From the start, health and safety issues figured prominently: Early in the pandemic, Covid-19 concerns helped galvanize initial organizing efforts.

Today, out of more than 185 retail locations, just 11 REIs are unionized, with the latest, in Greensboro, North Carolina, winning their election on Friday. None have contracts yet. At each shop, the company refused to voluntarily recognize the union and, like Starbucks and other big corporations hostile to unionization, forced each location to bargain individual contracts. REI has faced dozens of unfair labor practices complaints, alleging refusal to bargain in good faith and other tactics that workers say are attempts to “delay, delay, delay.”

The company has engaged in union busting, yet with a distinctly REI twist. CEO Eric Artz, speaking on an REI podcast, began with an introduction: “I use he/him pronouns, and I’m speaking to you today from the traditional lands of the Coast Salish peoples.” Artz then explained that he wasn’t opposed to unions—he just didn’t think “a union is the right thing for REI.”

Iwant to hate REI for being, by every indication, a shitty company like any other big box store. And yet, as for many yuppies of a certain disposition, REI occupies a special place in my heart. I grew up in Portland, Oregon, the whitest big city in America, a place where brightly colored puffer jackets are the de facto uniform. Being a Portlander and being “someone who shops at REI” have long been intertwined for me, like two essential qualities core to my being.

Over the years, REI has built a cultlike following of devoted members like me by selling itself as different and better than other retailers. On Black Friday, for example, REI is closed for business and invites shoppers to #OptOutside. REI has cultivated itself as a brand that customers associate with their favorite vacations and family memories and some of the most important times of their lives.

REI SoHo was where I crossed the threshold of an important relationship milestone with my partner of a decade. In 2016, we headed to REI SoHo to provision our first big international trip together. I paused at the door of the shop. “You’re about to see a side of me you’ve never seen before,” I told him solemnly. “This is who I really am.”

With great tenderness and reverence, I ran my hands along the sun-protection fabrics and delicate wools with staggering prices. Three hours later, I was still at it, insisting I needed just a few more minutes trying on what he now remembers as “everything in the store.” Back then, Al, my partner, had never heard of something called a hydration bladder. Now we have matching hydration bladders, along with matching hiking shoes, backpacks, ultra lightweight sleeping pads, and titanium sporks.

Holiday wish lists are traditional in my family, and most years I ask for REI gear. But this year, in light of the strike at REI SoHo, I asked for donations to the union hardship fund. My parents gave $200 at my behest.

The ski shop workers picketed through rain and snow and winter temperatures well below freezing. One day, a marching band showed up. Another day, Assembly member Zohran Mamdani and New York City Comptroller Brad Lander joined.

And through it all, day in and day out, a massive Calvin Klein underwear ad billboard towered above Houston Street, Jeremy Allen White’s crotch watching over the picket line with what was widely felt to be benevolence. The REI SoHo ski shop workers declared White their mascot. One said he was “inspired” and went shirtless and pantless for a day on the picket line. (White did not respond to a request for comment.)

The workers were demanding that REI do air quality testing and bargain with the union over health-related protocols. They also wanted a new and comprehensive assessment of the ski shop’s ventilation system. Kyle Greenwood, an REI employee of more than two years, said he had his doubts that the ventilation was sufficient: “I’ve lived in New York City apartments that have a stronger vent hood.”

Last week, the REI SoHo Union, which is represented by the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, and the company reached an agreement, and on Sunday, workers ended their 54-day strike. In a modest win for the union, REI agreed to do air quality testing by March 14 and to implement proper respirator protocols around things like training and storage. (Although unionized workers at REI SoHo walked out in solidarity on the first day, the strike was limited to the eight workers in the ski shop due to concerns that other unit members were not legally protected to join.)

But the victory wasn’t total: REI didn’t agree to assess the ski shop’s ventilation system or pay for the workers’ respirators and fit testing. These issues, and many others, will be negotiated at the bargaining table. In the end, it took a unionized workforce to force incremental change with an employer unafraid to skirt labor law—much like in crappy workplaces everywhere.