Unions Score Late-May Wins Across REI, Netflix Animation, Seattle Hospitals, Nevada State Offices and Weyerhaeuser

Workers across several U.S. industries scored a string of union election wins and contract ratifications in late May, spanning retail, entertainment, health care, state government and timber. The developments included a successful vote at the largest unionized REI store in the country, a first contract for feature production workers at Netflix Animation Studios, a physician union vote in the Seattle area, a 3,500-worker public-sector organizing win in Nevada, and a new deal covering 1,160 Weyerhaeuser employees in the Pacific Northwest.

Taken together, the results stood out not because they came from one employer or one union, but because they touched very different parts of the economy and involved both new organizing and contract bargaining. Several featured unusually large bargaining units, first contracts or first-of-their-kind votes within a company’s regional operations.

The wins were announced separately during the last week of May and later highlighted together by the AFL-CIO on June 4. Read as a group, they offered a snapshot of labor activity in workplaces ranging from a consumer co-op retailer to a Hollywood animation studio, hospital campuses, state offices and logging and milling operations.

At REI’s Kearny Mesa store in San Diego, workers voted in a National Labor Relations Board election to join UFCW Local 135. UFCW announced the result May 29 and said more than 100 workers backed the union, making it the largest unionized REI location in the country. Reporting said the vote took place May 27-28. The union said the election came just after a nationwide boycott of REI’s Anniversary Sale and that more than 70,000 co-op members pledged not to shop. REI’s union drive began in 2022 and has since spread to multiple stores. “We’re so stoked to have won our union!” worker Jae Michael said in a statement released by UFCW.

At Netflix Animation Studios, feature production workers ratified their first union contract with The Animation Guild, also known as IATSE Local 839. The guild announced the ratification May 28 and said nearly 89% voted in favor. The bargaining unit had won recognition on Dec. 30, 2025. The agreement includes wage minimums, dismissal pay and workplace protections. The deal is part of a broader organizing push by the Animation Guild across major studios, where production workers have sought to formalize pay standards and job protections.

In Washington state, hospitalists employed by Swedish Medical Group, part of Providence Swedish, voted to join Northwest Medicine United, AFT Local 6552. The official NLRB tally issued May 26 showed 86 votes for the union and 10 against, with 96 ballots counted out of 113 eligible voters. Coverage described the unit as about 115 hospitalists across five Seattle-area campuses. The result made them the first physicians in the Providence system to unionize in Washington, a notable step in a part of health care where unionization is less common than it is among nurses and other hospital workers. Providence said it would bargain in good faith with the union toward a first agreement.

Nevada state employees in administrative and clerical roles also posted a large organizing win. More than 3,500 workers voted to join AFSCME Local 4041, according to the Nevada Independent, which reported the result May 27. The outlet said 91% of participating workers supported unionizing. The unit includes administrative assistants, clerks and similar staff across state agencies, departments and public colleges and universities. The result still must be certified by the Employee-Management Relations Board, the state body that oversees public-sector labor relations. After certification, the state has up to 60 days to begin bargaining. Nevada expanded collective bargaining rights for state classified employees in 2019, making the vote part of a relatively new framework for state-worker bargaining.

In the Pacific Northwest, members of IAM District W24 ratified a four-year contract with timber and wood-products company Weyerhaeuser. IAM announced the agreement May 28, saying it covers 1,160 workers in Washington and Oregon at sawmills, trucking operations, export yards and logging camps. The contract provides an 11% total wage increase over four years, a $3,000 signing bonus, stronger pension and retirement benefits, and expanded bereavement leave. IAM International President Brian Bryant said workers had pushed to address “key family and financial issues” in the agreement.

The common thread across the five developments was concrete scale and substance: large vote totals, first contracts, first physician organizing in a major regional health system, and negotiated gains that already include wage increases, bonuses and workplace protections.