You’re 100% correct and I wish the article would call that out. I was pretty disappointed when I read that at first, but I think that, not only are the union workers going to see a victory here as well, but I also suspect that we have the union to thank for the non-union pay… idustries with solid union presence tend to see improvements to both pay and work environments merely because the union is there, effectively setting a standard that has to be at least loosely followed in order to be competitive. In this case, the union isn’t strong in this industry per se, but it is strong within Costco, driving the worker satisfaction up right along with it…which is a pretty great phenomenon.

This is what happens when you have good union representation and collective bargaining agreements. Great job, Teamsters!

Stay and risk having to work for a leadership committing atrocities. Leave and risk there only being loyalists working for the them, further enabling the atrocities.

Hey, there. It sounds like you’re less concerned about your genetic proclivity to an autoimmune arthritis and more looking for ways to stave off any kind of arthritic degeneration, including your standard-issue osteoarthritis. I’m a 38-year-old who is embarking on a race against the progression of arthritis and other skeletal/connective tissue maladies due to a genetic joint hypermobility disorder that I’m similarly trying to get out in front of. Here’s what I’ve found so far, with the obligatory “I am not a doctor,” and, “Your mileage may vary.”:

1. Keep baseline-inflammation down wherever you can. It sounds like woo-woo crap, but finding things specific to your body that cause inflammation and cutting them out will go further than you think. That goes for both diet and activities. Consider an elimination diet to help you figure out what those things are. For me, anything that’s particularly acidic makes me feel like crap, as does sugar and processed meats. I go through phases of being good at avoiding these things followed by phases where I completely fail at it. A lot of people swear by ginger/turmeric for anti-inflammatory properties but I try to avoid taking supplements of it because there have been recent studies that show a lot of the supplements made from dried/ground down fibers like that tend to keep your kidneys from functioning as well as they should.
2. Omega 3s and 6s are great for maintaining (and possibly also repairing?) cartilage. Glucosamine, too.
3. Strengthen your muscles so you aren’t relying so much on your tendons and bones to support you as you age, thus reducing the overall load on them and keeping them healthy for longer. Probably want to do low-impact stuff. I’m personally doing Pilates because yoga over-stretches my hypermobile joints and I also just find it boring. Lifting weights is also proven to increase your bone density, so it’s just good for you overall. And I feel like this part is obvious, but the less weight you carry, the less you’ll tax your body.
4. This may be less applicable to you, but the things I take to keep my bones and connective tissue as healthy as possible include: Multivitamin, an extra Vitamin D supplement, a manganese B12 supplement, and collagen-based protein powder (though be careful of lead levels in protein powders in general).

I wish you luck in your quest. I personally am just holding out for a full-body exoskeleton. That’d be pretty badass.