Summary
Over 18,000 unionized Costco employees, represented by the Teamsters, voted overwhelmingly to authorize a nationwide strike if a new contract is not reached by January 31.
Workers demand “fair wages and benefits,” citing Costco’s $254 billion in annual revenue and a 135% profit increase since 2018.
Practice pickets have already begun nationwide.
Union leaders warn that failure to reach a “historic, industry-leading agreement” could result in a strike, with workers emphasizing their role as the “backbone” of the company’s success.
I thought Costco was a good employer?
If the members don’t deliver a strike mandate to Union leadership, they have no leverage during contract negotiations. Voting against a strike is directly voting against your own interests no matter how good the employer is.
That may be why the union leaders aren’t talking about matching the market or something similar, but instead a “historic, industry-leading agreement”.
“Good” can be relative but isn’t necessarily fair. They might treat their employees better than Walmart but making record profits and not sharing with the employees is not fair or good. The union exists to make them be fair.
Consider that a company has no problem asking the union for concessions during low times. It’s only fair for the union to demand a share of the high times.
TIL Costco employees are unionized.
Good for them!
Only some. 18k of some 300k+ employees are unionized.
Thing is, Costco takes such good care of most of their frontline employees that the employees legitimately don’t see the need for a union, because the company is possibly the only one in the modern world that figured out it’s cheaper if you keep employees happy by paying them more.
Their pay scales and benefits are amazing for grocery store work, up to 30 an hour, and there is a direct promotion path from part time checkout clerk up to management with 100k+ salaries.
