SEATTLE — Employees in the 'lead' role at REI stores will be laid off and a new staffing model will be implemented, REI Vice President of Stores Mary-Farrel Tarbox announced in an email to workers on Friday.
According to an email from Tarbox, 275 employees will be laid off.
These are not the first layoffs announced this year for REI. In early 2023, REI announced that 167 people in corporate positions would be laid off, impacting about 8% of their headquarters staff.
REI said in the email it would invest the laid-off positions back into the store by hiring other roles and seasonal workers to create about 1,300 new jobs across the country before the end of 2023. The laid-off employees account for about 2% of store employees.
"You just put 275 people on unemployment and there are 1,300 jobs that are listed on the REI career website, so it's not like we're (REI Company) hurting for money necessarily," said John Cook, an employee at the REI store in Bellingham.
The 'Lead' role was chosen for cuts, according to the email, because it "is the most inconsistently used role across the fleet and are retiring it effective immediately." REI said most employees in the position will be transitioned to new roles.
The new staffing model will include a new category of part-time + employees, which are employees expected to work 16-24 hours a week.
This is in contrast to regular part-time workers who, according to the email, "can expect a high degree of flexibility and variability throughout the year to meet both the employee desire for flexibility and support our dynamic business demands."
The staffing model included clearer guidelines for management and was changed so that more employees would have more consistent accountability measures and predictable schedules, according to Tarbox.
In a statement from the REI Union, they said the union will be pursuing a legal route within the coming days because the company is required by law to negotiate with the union before making major layoffs.
They wrote, "instead of honoring the expertise their most veteran employees bring to the Co-op, REI made the callous decision to lay off tenured staff even while they are still hiring new staff at lower wage rates. REI executives are sacrificing their most loyal employees to cut labor costs– a decision that not only betrays the values the co-op was founded on but eliminates years of expertise that REI customers have come to rely on when they shop."
Cook voiced his opposition to the layoffs.
"Everybody deserves a living wage," Cook said. "Everybody deserves consistent hours. And I think at the top they see dollar signs. And we are people."
KING 5 reached out to REI for comment but has not heard back.