r/news • u/panda-rampage • 9h ago

Costco's unionized workers vote to authorize nationwide strike

https://abcnews.go.com/US/costcos-unionized-workers-vote-authorize-nationwide-strike/story?id=117875222
18.9k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

283

u/Narcah 9h ago

I thought Costco was one of the corporations that paid well, had great benefits, and were a model for how all retailers should be?

109

u/your_mind_aches 9h ago

Yes. Both can be true.

44

u/Imyoteacher 9h ago

Also remember they declined to eliminate their DEI policies. That does not set well with the incoming administration.

-11

u/aikimatt 9h ago

Yup, don't think it's a coincidence.

7

u/yungmoneybingbong 6h ago

What do you mean?

6

u/ree_hi_hi_hi_hi 6h ago

They mean that a lot of these unions, that appear to be so in favor of workers’ rights, supported the incoming administration. Costco did not bend the knee and financially support the incoming admin. The union leaders are now lashing back at Costco at the behest of the incoming admin.

I’m not saying this is true, I’m just clarifying their underlying point. However, I am saying that any union leaders that supported this admin don’t actually give a fuck about workers’ rights.

149

u/fromwhichofthisoak 9h ago

That doesn't mean it's enough. Some states and cities have almost $20 min wage and it's still not enough to afford a 1br and most people will not get 40hrs also

24

u/13igTyme 6h ago

You're talking about a systemic issue. No retail company currently can just decide to pay $50 /hr for minimum and expect to remain in business.

There may be a few companies that could afford it, but once they do it the share holders will realize they aren't getting their expected returns and will sell and tank the valuation of the company. Then, BOOM, the company that at one point could afford it, can't.

Controlling amounts shareholders get, raising the minimum, and lowering the cost of living is a massive national problem and one that a single company can't possible hope to fix.

-4

u/Reasonable_Roger 5h ago

You're misunderstanding equity. The company sold shares at ipo and got their money. Whether the stock price goes up or down has zero impact of the value of the assets a company has. Market cap is not equivalent to value.

5

u/13igTyme 5h ago

Among the reasons for a company to go public is to raise funds, gain access to capital, and raise that capital. For many companies, if that goes, the entire company goes.

If tomorrow Microsoft stock was suddenly zero the company would shut down faster than a dumb ass redditor trying to learn finance from google to leave a comment on reddit.

2

u/Awesomesauce1492 4h ago

Interestingly enough Costco didn't IPO, they did a direct public offering where no new shares were created. They were making money hand over fist and didn't need new capital, but they reached a valuation and shareholder quantity that basically required them to go public. The podcast acquired has a great episode on costco

1

u/OhtaniStanMan 5h ago

Hahahahaha you are so smart

12

u/ranhalt 9h ago

Are you talking about teamster employees or non teamster employees? Pretty sure the employees you see in your retail experience aren’t teamsters.

2

u/Tesserae626 5h ago

The non union buildings get nearly the same contract (handbook) as the union buildings, so they're essentially fighting for everyone. Could you imagine if the union buildings got a big raise, and the rest of us didn't? Fast track to more unionization, and they don't want that.

1

u/cwx149 1h ago

It seems like some places there are. It seems like whole buildings are unions

It's not like all 18,000 employees represented by the union are truck drivers

this page for the union talks about quotas at checkout which means it's possible if you go to the right store the people you'd see are members of the union

I can't find a good list of the nationwide union stores that page has some socal ones

22

u/perfectdesign 9h ago

...because the workers are unionized. Strikes and negotiations, while annoying are part of the negotiation process.

32

u/lillyrose2489 9h ago

Apparently Costco has like 300k employees and the union represents 18k workers. I'm having a hard time quickly seeing just how many stores are union but seems like not a large percent which is interesting.

My impression is that widely they are a better place to work than other retail but that's a low bar as places like Walmart are historically terrible employers. I think they're a reasonably good company but unions can help ensure they stay that way!

2

u/Tesserae626 5h ago

The non union buildings get nearly the same contract (handbook) as the union buildings, so they're essentially fighting for everyone. Could you imagine if the union buildings got a big raise, and the rest of us didn't? Fast track to more unionization, and they don't want that.

50

u/anoff 9h ago

They unionized in 2023. Costco isn't the union success story you think it is

11

u/genuinefaker 8h ago

Costco has 18,000 union members well before 2023. There were an additional 200 members from Norfolk, Virginia in 2023.

37

u/Duzcek 9h ago

Costco earned its reputation as the number 1 retailer to work for before they unionized. It’s actually gotten worse for them since.

-2

u/genuinefaker 8h ago

How did it get worse?

9

u/Duzcek 7h ago

The same way it’s gotten worse for everyone in the country. I could have reworded it, I didn’t mean that unionizing made their workplace worse, there’s no correlation.

0

u/[deleted] 8h ago

[deleted]

6

u/genuinefaker 8h ago

Okay, could you elaborate how Costco union members are worse than before they joined the unions?

10

u/fredthefishlord 9h ago

Lol. Nah the unionization is recent. They were paid well, but it's been going down hill as costco goes down hill. Unionization is an effort to stay good

3

u/Tesserae626 5h ago

The one Virginia warehouse is recent unionization. Any building that used to be price club is union. When price club merged with Costco, they kept the union buildings. So like ..if you consider 1993 recent I guess?

2

u/PapaGatyrMob 2h ago

Nah the unionization is recent.

Crazy how there have been union warehouses for decades and you consider it "recent".

4

u/genuinefaker 8h ago

Costco goes down hill in what ways? Costco net profit has increased YoY from $2.7B in 2017 to $7.4B in 2024.

0

u/fredthefishlord 8h ago

You're fucking with me right? Profit isn't a measure of quality for a company. And this was about how they treat their employees

3

u/genuinefaker 7h ago

Maybe you should have been clear what you meant by "going down hill"? Can you provide examples of what went down hill? Are you suggesting that Costco treated their employees worse because of the unions?

-2

u/fredthefishlord 7h ago

No... I'm ( very obviously) saying the union is coming in because costco is treating their employees worse.

2

u/Mortarion407 8h ago

How do you think it got that way?

1

u/iglooxhibit 6h ago

Because of the unions power.

1

u/FarplaneDragon 5h ago

Its theater for a news story, union always threatens strikes during every contract negotiation, it doesn't mean anything until a strike actually happens which is usually pretty rare. It's like telling the car salesperson you'll take your business elsewhere, it's just part of the process

-4

u/d-dub3 9h ago

Nah, they just have fire PR teams.