Organize the Gyms!

The conditions of work for trainers in gyms is extremely contingent, as many of us have discovered in the COVID era. Like so much of the modern economy, highly skilled people are hustling all the time to make ends meet, forced to take private clients and at the whims of employers who would prefer they basically remain gig workers rather than real employees that require some sort of commitment. What’s the solution? Organize the gyms!

Many trainers are classified as part-time employees or contractors. This can help them to keep a flexible schedule—but it can also preclude them from receiving any benefits, like health care, from their employer. Collinson fit that bill. And in some cases, like Collinson’s experience at Solidcore, coaches are required to pay for specialized training provided by the company (on top of any other fitness certifications they might hold) before auditioning for a job by teaching trial classes.

When Collinson started teaching at Solidcore in 2019, she kept her day job as an administrative professional. She’d also been active around political and social issues since college and sits on the board of a nonprofit group called Rising Organizers, so the idea of rallying group support came naturally. After being fired, she contacted a friend from that community, who advised her to file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. An early examination by an NLRB case investigator suggested that because of Collinson’s job duties and level of control over how those duties were performed, she should have been protected by the National Labor Relations Act as an employee, despite Solidcore’s classification of her as an independent contractor. That case is still ongoing.

But organizing at Solidcore didn’t end with Collinson’s role at the company. She and her collaborators (several of whom shared concerns directly with Men’s Health) have since formed a public-facing group called Solidcore United to publicly address corporate neglect and impropriety. In June, 32 employees and independent contractors signed an anonymous letter of demands for COVID-related protections in their workplace. In August, some workers also helped inform a BuzzFeed investigation that alleged a culture of sexual harassment, racism, and body shaming at the company. The allegations surfaced under the leadership of founder and CEO Anne Mahlum. Solidcore United has since sponsored a petition calling for Mahlum to resign.

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THE NEXT BIG FLEX for some of these efforts might be forming a real union—the type of collective organization that could pressure major companies to make systemic changes in how they operate, because employees have a seat directly at the bargaining table. It’s worked for plenty of trades, from autoworkers to electricians and pipe fitters. But there’s still no precedent for that in the fitness industry.

In fact, there have been a few recent setbacks. One unionizing effort among Gold’s Gym trainers stalled out in 2017, when trainers in Los Angeles voted against the idea. Another, started in 2019 by YogaWorks instructors in New York City, gained some recognition from the company but never had a chance to bargain for a contract because the company shut down all New York locations in April 2020.

Nationally, at least one new group has some traction. Group Fitness Instructors United was founded by Emily Stewart—a Seattle-based fitness professional with certifications to teach barre, yoga, Pilates, indoor cycling, and more—and has aligned with a local machinists lodge, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers 751, for more support. For now, Stewart is building connections with fitness instructors and coaches who work in disparate corners of the industry. Her contact list includes more than 600 people. Group Fitness Instructors United has no public-facing social media accounts, so that she can protect people’s privacy.

There’s no magic here. This is how it happens. You organize and fight for your rights. You create a union (or other similar workers’ organization). And then you work collectively to advance your goals. This is a fight well worth following.