Overcoming stiff corporate opposition and a slick anti-union campaign, staff at the company’s New York flagship store voted Wednesday to unionize by an overwhelming 7-to-1 margin.

REI SoHo, the nearly 40,000-square-foot Manhattan store, is the first of the company’s locations to unionize. Eighty-six percent of its 116 staff, from tech specialists to shipping and retail workers, voted to form a new local of the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union—the same union that workers at Amazon’s huge Bessemer, Alabama, facility are now voting on whether to join. The REI vote follows an expensive, full-bore effort against the union, including an anti-union podcast that drew laughs online for “progressive” flourishes like an Indigenous land acknowledgement and executives’ recitation of pronouns.

Source: REI Workers Just Unionized by a Landslide – Mother Jones

John Hanick, aka Jack Hanick, 71, a U.S. citizen, is charged with violations of U.S. sanctions and false statements in connection with his years-long work for the sanctioned Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev.

“The Justice Department will do everything it can to stamp out Russian aggression and interference,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “As alleged in the indictment, the Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev was previously sanctioned for threatening Ukraine and providing financial support to the Donetsk separatist region. The defendant Hanick knowingly chose to help Malofeyev spread his destabilizing messages by establishing, or attempting to establish, TV networks in Russia, Bulgaria and Greece, in violation of those sanctions.”

“Konstantin Malofeyev is closely tied to Russian aggression in Ukraine, having been determined by OFAC to have been one of the main sources of financing for the promotion of Russia-aligned separatist groups operating in the sovereign nation of Ukraine,” said U.S. Attorney Damien Williams for the Southern District of New York. “The U.S. sanctions on Malofeyev prohibit U.S. citizens from working for or doing business with Malofeyev but as alleged, Hanick violated those sanctions by working directly for Malofeyev on multiple television projects over the course of several years. The indictment unsealed today shows this office’s commitment to the enforcement of laws intended to hamstring those who would use their wealth to undermine fundamental democratic processes. This office will continue to be a leader in the Justice Department’s work to hold accountable actors who would support flagrant and unjustified acts of war.”

Source: TV Producer for Russian Oligarch Charged with Violating Crimea-Related Sanctions | OPA | Department of Justice

The Change.org petition organized by human rights activist Lev Ponomarev shows the strength of opposition to the invasion ordered by Vladimir Putin.
— Read on www.newsweek.com/russia-war-petition-putin-ukraine-change-no-wa-1684398

Jack Hanick, a onetime producer at Fox News, has been indicted on charges of working for a sanctioned Russian oligarch.
— Read on variety.com/2022/tv/news/fox-news-producer-charged-russian-oligarch-1235195660/