NYC’s ‘Hot Climbing Worker Summer’: Movement Harlem becomes second New York City climbing gym in as many weeks to join Climbing Workers United campaign
June 4, 2025
Media Contact:
Trevor Goodwin, Climbing Workers United
Cell: (484) 949-5349 | Email: [email protected]
New York, NY – Workers at the Movement Harlem climbing gym today became the latest group of climbing workers to join Workers United’s Climbing Workers United campaign, petitioning the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for a union election. The move to unionize at Movement Harlem comes just two weeks after workers at another New York City climbing gym, MetroRock Bushwick, filed their own petition for a union election. Across the U.S., workers at 15 other climbing gyms, including at six other gyms owned by the nationwide chain that owns Movement Harlem, have voted to join Workers United and organize for a climbing industry where workers’ safety is prioritized and their hard work rewarded fairly.
Movement Harlem would become the seventh gym owned and operated by Movement Climbing, Yoga and Fitness, the largest chain of indoor rock climbing gyms in the U.S., to unionize with Workers United, joining fellow NYC gyms Movement Long Island City and Movement Gowanus; Philadelphia’s Movement Callowhill; Movement Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia; and Chicago’s Movement Lincoln Park and Movement Wrigleyville.
In a letter they delivered to management on Monday, members of the Organizing Committee at Movement Harlem expressed their desire to work constructively with management and their conviction that a stronger voice on the job for workers would create a better experience for everyone at the gym:
…[W]e care deeply about the mission of Movement Harlem and its climbing community that the workers have lovingly built these past few years. By organizing a union, we establish a better workplace environment for all workers, translating to an even better experience for gym-goers and community members. We envision a true representative voice for the staff and a healthy, equitable relationship with Movement management.
Aliya Hunter, who works as a private coach at Movement Harlem, said she was particularly excited about building power with her coworkers in this moment. “Unionizing at Harlem makes life feel so much more meaningful to me,” said Hunter. “At the moment there are so many forces, namely our current government, trying to convince us we are powerless. But, by unionizing, we are saying we DO have power, together!”
“I held the belief that because Movement Harlem is a small gym and we enjoy our work so much, we didn’t need a union,” explained Movement Harlem front desk worker Molly Rosenshein. “I’m so grateful to have learned we were wrong! A climbing gym can’t run without its experienced coaches, front desk staff, and route setters. We want to provide the highest quality experience for our community — and we deserve reasonable benefits and pay to ensure that keeps happening.”
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 15 gyms across the country have voted to unionize with Workers United
New York City, in particular, has been a hub for climbing worker organizing. MetroRock Bushwick, where workers petitioned for a union election on May 20th, and Movement Harlem would become, respectively, the sixth and seventh union climbing gyms in the city, joining the other aforementioned NYC Movement gyms as well as gyms owned by Vital Climbing in Brooklyn, West Harlem and the Upper Eastside.
Movement Harlem had been the only New York City gym owned by Movement where workers had not previously moved to unionize. Employees at the company’s Long Island City and Gowanus gyms enthusiastically welcomed the Harlem workers to the campaign.
“Every Movement gym in NYC having announced its intent to unionize symbolizes that the majority of Movement workers in New York have chosen this path,” said Alexa Zielinski, routesetter at Movement Gowanus in Brooklyn. “Ultimately we all know in our hearts that if we want a climbing industry that will sustain the people who make it great, that this is a necessary step.”
Said Frances Huang, who works the front desk at Movement Gowanus: “Congratulations to Movement Harlem workers for launching your union campaign. Big corporations such as Movement have figured out that it’s profitable to buy climbing gyms out and cut costs by paying workers less. However, workers at NYC Movement gyms are making the statement known that climbing is a community, and we will fight so that climbing remains a community sport.”
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Climbing Workers United is a campaign of Workers United.
CBJ press releases are written by the sponsor and do not represent the views of the Climbing Business Journal editorial team.
