May 20, 2025 – Brooklyn, NY – Citing a need for a greater voice in decisions affecting their jobs, workers at the MetroRock Bushwick climbing gym today petitioned the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for a union election. Last week, the MetroRock Bushwick workers announced that they were organizing with Workers United as part of the union’s Climbing Workers United campaign, joining workers at MetroRock Vermont in Essex Junction, VT and at 14 other climbing gyms across the country where workers have already voted to join Workers United and take a stand to build a safer, more democratic climbing industry.
On Friday, workers gathered at the Bushwick, Brooklyn gym to hand deliver to their managers a letter requesting that MetroRock owners and management voluntarily recognize their union. The letter, signed by more than 80% of non-managerial employees, described the sense of pride workers feel for the community they have built at the gym and their frustration with management repeatedly dismissing workers’ attempts to make improvements at the facility. As of this morning, MetroRock owners and management had not agreed to voluntarily recognize the union.
“Metrorock Bushwick is such a unique climbing gym; it overflows with passion for the sport, and has become a central point of community for so many people,” said Lila Cook, who works in youth programs at the gym. “The staff at Metrorock do so much to uphold this, and it’s time that this care is reciprocated from the company’s leadership. We are unionizing so that we can receive the benefits we deserve, and so that the climbing community at Metrorock Bushwick can continue to have this safe place to come to for the sport.”
“We care so much about MetroRock Bushwick,” said climbing instructor and front desk attendant Keshy Patel. “And we feel that with Workers United we can organize and fight for positive change in a community we’ve built, one we’d love to see thrive.”
These sentiments were echoed by Colleen Miller who works in MetroRock’s youth programs as well as at the front desk: “Metrorock Is a special place that has been created by the community. There is so much love, dedication, and care put into the space that allows for the community to thrive. We are organizing to support each other through difficult leadership decisions. Standing together, we are building a stronger MetroRock Bushwick.”
This is the second gym owned and operated by MetroRock to join the Climbing Workers United campaign. Last September, workers at MetroRock Vermont voted overwhelmingly to unionize with Workers United. On Friday, organizers from the Vermont location made the six-hour drive to join with Brooklyn workers in their request for voluntary recognition.
Griffin DeMatteo, who works at MetroRock Vermont, was among the organizers to drive down to Brooklyn. “We wanted to come down and support our fellow Metrorock workers here in Bushwick because our fight is their fight, too,” DeMatteo said. “We know that working together will help give both gyms the power we need to win fair contracts.”
MetroRock is in the midst of an ownership shakeup. Under former gym leadership, the company delayed bargaining, refusing to sign any tentative agreements for over six months of bargaining. Workers at both the Vermont and New York gyms hope that new leadership will reverse course and commit to bargaining a contract quickly and in good faith.
Across the U.S., coaches, instructors, routesetters and customer experience workers in climbing gyms are organizing with Climbing Workers United to improve the labor practices of an industry that has too often counted on workers’ passion for climbing to compensate for gyms’ low pay, inconsistent scheduling, and inadequate training and safety standards. Already, workers at a total of 15 gyms across the country have unionized with Workers United
MetroRock Bushwick would become the sixth union climbing gym in New York City, joining Vital Brooklyn, Vital West Harlem, Vital Upper East Side, Movement Gowanus and Movement Long Island City in organizing with Workers United.
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Climbing Workers United is a campaign of Workers United.
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