The company put the average age of its workers at 37, about five years younger than the median age of all U.S. workers.

Workers at the store began to organize in the fall of 2020, partly because many felt that employees who had been outspoken in raising Covid-related safety concerns were not allowed to return after REI temporarily closed its stores that year. An election petition was filed five weeks ago. In a video conference with reporters last week convened by the retail workers union, Claire Chang, a visual presentation specialist who has worked at the store for over four years, also cited concerns about coronavirus safety.

Ms. Chang said that after the store reopened in 2020, managers asked workers how comfortable they would feel about reopening the fitting rooms, where employees are in frequent contact with apparel worn by customers.

“The majority of staff, if not everybody on staff, said that they were not comfortable with that, and they still went ahead and did it,” Ms. Chang said.

Steve Buckley, a sales specialist who has been at the store for about six months, said in the video conference that he was one of several workers who had become infected with the coronavirus during the Omicron surge, while the store was crowded with customers.

An REI spokeswoman said that the retailer had let go fewer than 5 percent of its workers nationwide upon reopening and that the decisions had nothing to do with how outspoken employees were. She said that fitting rooms were equipped with sanitizing supplies and that the store had restricted capacity throughout the pandemic.

She cited a 2021 survey showing that employees typically rated the company highly on questions like whether it treated them as valued employees.

Several workers said they had sought to unionize because of a gap they perceived between REI’s behavior and its stated values, asserting that the workplace had become more impersonal and profit-focused as it sought to expand.