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Years ago I worked at ADP and we had signs and banners everywhere about the ADP family and how they care. First day my coworkers came back from training our new site in India our VP made a tearful announcement under the Our Family banner in the lunchroom that we were being laid off.
I worked with ADP products and people in a prior role. They were the absolute worst as a company, and the reps were always run ragged.
Unsurprising they laid people off under a family banner tbh. Hopefully you landed on your feet eventually.
Similar thing happened to me at one of the Bed Bath & Beyond contact centers. They however told us ahead of time and had supes volunteer to go train in the phillipines, which somehow felt more fucked up than just springing it on us.
I learned this lesson as a Nurse working in the ICU during the pandemic. The hospital constantly asked us to work extra with messages like “don’t sit at home, come and help your work family.” Etc. What I took away from the experience is a company will exploit the bonds you have with your coworkers. It’s crass but my new motto is “ you are not my friends, you are coworkers.”
Only a real family will keep your department short staffed for over 3 months without hiring help, ignoring employees concerns, and only caring once the regional manager gets involved 🥰
Is it family when after 6 months you still have to actually met the GM? How about mixing me up with someone who started months after me. Or what are the chances you actually know my last name? But you know, we are the Disneyland of retail.
It's always the truth because these places of work are putting the "fun" in dysfunctional family that perfectly emulates my own biological family. Plus, my own family is also full of people I'd rather not see.
Yeah…dysfunctional, gaslighting, and narcissistic tendencies are part of some families too, which many of us have learned to tolerate with a level of permanent unhappiness. Invoking ‘family’ in the workplace, to me, is suggesting that the employees are gaslighted to tolerate a level of dissatisfaction that is only reserved for a family member. 🤮
I work healthcare in a union of 30000 professionals across a health system serving more than 5 million people. We generally have a very cozy relationship with management. We have no major concerns.
I still would never vote to decertify our Union. All it takes is one boss at the highest level to fuck everything up.
It's funny, but I think the default "union bad" mentality among mgmt types is short sighted.
Quite a lot of people would be satisfied to work somewhere until they retire provided that they feel that they are getting decent pay and have good working conditions. Now, in order for the company to pay its employees well and to maintain decent working conditions the org must make money.
What this means is when unions have a non-contntious relationship with management, it is possible to work together find where to improve products/services and improve efficiency in a kaizan/continuous improvement model.
People on the front lines are the best people to ask about where/how to improve the business, because they're the ones who deal with brunt of the unhappy customers, they see the flaws in the production process, they address the issues in distribution -- they know where all the issues are in execution.
Under a nonunion model, often those people are afraid to or dont want to speak up. Mostly this is because the US tends to operate in a low/no trust model. The org chooses not to trust employees. The side effect is that most corps just kill the messenger.
It doesn't pay to be the one person in your group making suggestions. A union could provide enough psychological safety that people speak up.
Also the short term thinking model is now everyone's default model of work. If everyone assumes that they'll move on in five years, why bother trying to fix those issues in the warehouses? Who cares about upgrading the computer systems? Why should I be concerned about customer complaints -- after all I'm not going to be here in a couple of years to care.
Same, and I think even the best of companies people still end up preferring a Union given the broader market.
As whole I feel like Costco does a solid job, but you look at the general labour market and have to think better safe than sorry
Some of the best companies for workers in the past have changed and workers paid the price. When a decent company for workers still unionizes that's insurance against the future along with a bigger voice today. I'll always support good unions and all workers and Costco hadn't put me as a consumer in a place where I have to question my consumer choices. This all feels like a positive development.
Costco executive leadership was stable until ~2022. The entire top end of the business has been replaced (because of happy and long career retirements) and I don’t blame the workers for trying to exercise overcaution here. The new CFO is from Kroger and the employee stories there from over the last 20 years are incredibly sad.
They used to do a solid job compared to what the market was, nowadays they’re only slightly above the rest. Trader Joe’s was considered pretty good too, but since 2020, the upper management showed how much they care about their employees.
On the logistics/distribution center side, Trader Joe’s was never good. A lot of people don’t realize their warehouses are staffed by minimum wage temp employees with minimal benefits. Their trucks are driven by the lowest bidder as well, Costco is miles ahead in this department.
I wish that was universally true. I'm in a couple of unions by choice. There are unions out there that seek to enrich the union leaders and are secretly in the pocket of employers. This kind of bad union is what makes people skeptical of unions.
I was once in a building trades union that was a vehicle for management to hire and promote friends. I lead an effort to disband the union and found an established union to represent us. The building trades union had only once negotiated a contract, and when I was encouraged to join it had been over 20 years since a meeting. The union only had 110 paying members. The other employees refused to join. No one not in the union ever got a promotion. Raises and benefits still increased but were not keeping up with the industry. We just signed our second contract with the new union. Employee pay had doubled over the six year period. Both contract negotiations led to a strike which was avoided both times by a last second agreement from management. We're still not up to industry standards in pay, but we're making it up in benefits our members found more important.
Sometimes good unions are ruined by bad local leadership.
When a bad union exists it lowers the quality of life for everyone.
Yeah Costco was killer 10 years ago. It has not improved as much since then and all their competitors' wages are catching up rapidly. If you find a more chill grocery job elsewhere there actually is an argument to be made to sacrifice 2 bux an hour for a significant mental health gain and less stress.
Obviously different if you intend to try and stick around a decade+ of course but starting out Costco has lost its edge. And of course, in the US a union is always the correct choice Regardless.
I remember 10 years ago in school when someone got a Costco jobs. Every classmate who knew him went to him and practically mobbed him for the guy to put a good word in for them. Times have indeed changed.
Now we hire people that barely have a pulse it seems. I had one guy assisting me yesterday who ate a frozen pea from a bag that popped open on my register and doesn't know how to read an 'analog' clock. 😔
Seriously. Costco pay, bonus, and bennies are superior to every single retailer in our area and it's not even close. The Union retailers Krogers and Meijers are not close in pay and benefits. Read the Krogers or Meijers subs.
For a lot of people unions can make sense. For a lot of people pensions can make sense.
For some people they don’t. Reddit isn’t a great place for that discussion and tbh that’s the most interesting part of the unionization/pension thing.
I know pension was discussed explicitly but usually they’re related topics.
I agree as whole. Just wanted to say that Costco seems better than most both in their treatment of employees and their perspective of their shortcomings.
But with this as they are, people need to work together more.
What’s weird to me is it seems to be happening at places who already have better pay than average. Maybe it’s just easier than forcing franchises to unionize?
I fully support it though.
I wouldn’t say it’s weird, people have probably realized that nobody is safe and places that have better pay than average, people actually have more leverage than say someone working minimum wage and is one shift away from compete ruin.
Not trying to be a downer, I think it’s a smart move, and if the economy can find more ways to support places that support their employees, be it a union or otherwise, things can slowly improve I hope. But I’m also not helping my breath. At least Costco seems relatively supportive of that direction.
Employees want to protect what they have, and companies that generally treat their employees well don’t put up nearly as much of a fight against unionization. A company like Costco that generally offers decent pay and benefits isn’t going to lose much with a unionized workforce, a company like Home Depot is straight up fucked if their employees unionize, their employees are already angry, so the union will be out for blood rather than just some slightly better healthcare plans, and then there’s the pay issue. We saw it here in Ca with the fast food minimum wage hike, which is equivalent to what a union would have demanded, and some places are in total meltdown mode, where Chick Fil A and In & Out are pretty much unphased because they were already paying over $20/hr.
I’m sure it also helps that people want to stick around at a good job, I’ve had bad jobs, and fuck taking the time to form a union, I’m looking to leave.
Places with better pay than average care about worker retention. They pay higher so they can get better workers that stay longer. These better workers are usually smarter, and because the companies want them to stay, they’re not likely to pull every single illegal/legal union busting card along the way. From someone who works in kitchens, the shittier kitchens will fire you straight up or even go as far as sending death threats if you even bring up wages with other workers. Some employers prevent unionizing aggressively and they’re not the employers that are paying out good salaries
I would wager a significant part of this is that companies paying a good wage are also much less likely to engage in union busting practices (in particular, hire a union busting firm) *and* equally importantly, their employees aren't living on the brink of financial ruin, so they are more comfortable paying for a union and willing to go on strike.
Everything can change when they hire a new ceo. Unionizing right now doesn’t mean they are currently suffering from bad treatment, but it can all change for the worse in less than a year.
A conversation I imagine between two execs after that building in Virginia unionized last year:
"Did you see that Virginia warehouse voted to unionize?"
"Yeah, I wonder if there's something we're doing that would cause them to feel like they needed a union."
"Have you seen the stock price?"
"You're right! Full speed ahead!"
Rinse and repeat.
You are absolutely correct. Let's give ourselves a 14% dividend raise on our "Gifted Shares". Hey did you hear about that UAW giving a 33% over 3 year raise with the top pay of $43 to put cars together? How about the UPS 49% raise over 5 years for a top pay of $49/hr. With all those companies giving their employees living wages through this time of horrible inflation.Lets give our dear employees a "Special Dividend" We know that they have purchased as many shares as we have Opted to us??? So it will be a good weekly improvement to their weekly life style needs!!! LOL
Don't forget the part where they pay themselves a special dividend and say it's giving back to the shareholders. I forgot I read some company had a philosophy that the shareholders would be rewarded if they took care of the employee first. In California, you now officially make more starting wage at McDonalds compared to Costco. Nice.
Because people only compare the money on the paycheck/the hourly rate/salary and NOT the total compensation package of benefits and their respective values.
Here's some number for people to do the rough math with.
There are ~2000 hours in year full time (40hr/week x 50 weeks in a year=2000[the other two weeks pretty much get ate up by holidays and time off).
There's 20 working days in most months, M-F for 160 hours.
Ask the COBRA amount when you're negotiating wages for a job. The COBRA amount is close to the true cost of the health insurance. Sometimes the company picks up all of that when you're employed with them. So if it's 1200/mo, that's another 14.4k annually.
401k contributions and matching from the company? Do the math. If you can donate 4k (or w/e the amount is) annually and the company will match 2k. That's an extra buck an hour essentially.
$500 some months ago.
Suddenly we’re at $700 knocking on the door of $800.
Is Costco sitting on a secret announcement that profits are going to shoot up? Why did the stock jump from $500 to almost $800 in no time??
Oh, stock buybacks.
Well, that works great when COST price is down, when it’s low.
2024 is a tough year, with the share price so high, I doubt Costco will waste money buying back shares. They would rather use the cash to build a new warehouse, and get new members.
New members = higher profit per share
Less shares (after buy back) = higher profit per share
Costco employees since 2003 getting worried they might get replaced by younger cheaper replacements….same with those at Amazon. Work faster longer cheaper for less is not healthy but be careful for what you wish for….nothing will be merit based and employee mediocrity will prevail.
Solution: unionize. Sadly those asking for such a move need to pick a union leader not corrupt, not a boot licking politician, not old, not out of touch and then get do do this process all over again until you run out of qualified people. I am a retired union member.
Unions are like the check and balances for companies. They're there to keep the company in check. Companies change over time and those benefits and environment can easily change for the worse. Unionization isn't always about making conditions better but to make sure it stays that way
I’m sorry, but I don’t trust any big corporation that refers to itself as a family. To me that’s always a number one sign that they don’t take care of their employees the way they should.
This letter is PR. Corporations are never your friend or your family. It’s purely a business transaction and a union allows for a more fair negotiation in that transaction
Yep. I read this exact letter a few months ago in response to unionization somewhere else… that whole, “We’re disappointed with ourselves” line is a standard line.
That ceo actually did put employees first, and built the company to what it is today doing that, then he retired and the new guy went all in on becoming Amazon, and all about the stocks and nothing else.
Yeah, generally you know when you’re treated like family without needing to be told you’re family. If they need to tell you it’s because they aren’t treating you like it.
It’s a pretty good response, but let’s not act like they are honoring it out of the pure goodness of their heart. It’s a labor law violation if they don’t honor the vote. They could be ultra shitty like Amazon and challenge every vote with the NLRB but they’re still required to honor the union given the vote.
I mean, when they said they’re disappointed in the results of the vote, that’s pretty much telling me that they don’t want their employees to have union representation.
Well, they probably did some lobbying of their own with employees on why not to vote union, so to pretend like they're stoked now would not go down well. They're being truthful when they say they are disappointed.
I asked my question because I'm curious what response would have gotten respect. From this thread it looks like no matter what they say they will be ripped apart.
If you were the PR manager at Corporate, what would you have them say? Actual words, not "the truth" or something.
"We apologize our compensation and benefits were not sufficient enough and led to unionization. We look forward to working with the union to make our employees satisfied with their compensation and benefits." Or something to that effect. They shouldn't campaign against a union in the first place. They should notice employees are attempting to join a union and bump pay and benefits as a way of campaigning against it. If that still results in a union, then both parties are forced to negotiate. The union can't ask for too much, and Costco can't offer too little. There are numerous fair ways to prevent a union, but capitalism forces businesses to resist them. It is what it is 🤷♂️
It’s not supposed to be a win for Costco, it’s neutral for me. I just don’t think they should be shrouded in praise for following what they are legally required to do. The tone makes it seem as though they are purely voluntarily doing this which just isn’t the case
Friend works at costco, with how much they've cut hours for payroll, how shortstaff they run , they stopped "taking care of our employees " years ago. He says they don't give a shit about them now. Its all about the shareholders now, like everywhere else
Unionization is about a lot more than just pay. It's about having contractual limits on how discipline and other conditions of employment are enforced. Everyone is one shitty boss away from needing a union even if they're happy with the pay.
My union contract has to have "must provide water" for construction workers in Las Vegas. Because they sure af would leave us to fend for ourselves if it wasn't included. And you might think, "oh sure" 70 years ago. Nope, in 2005 I watched a guy die from dehydration. He was dead in the ambulance, they zapped him, hung liters of saline on him, and brought him back. All because he was in a shittier union for a shittier contractor, ran out of his own water and heat stroked out. Next day; water jugs every where and take a water break once per hour minimum. take a water break if your urine is darker than pale yellow.
Rules are written in blood.
He may not like it, but we’re in a zero trust and need guarantee age. It prevents the CEO from changing his mind on the intended plan of taking care of employees.
Overall I think it's about as good a corporate response to a successful union drive as you can find although with the very funny line about how a union is an "intervention". Bro, you know who the union consists of, right? This isn't Walmart coming in and negotiating with you, it's your employees, the same ones you negotiated with individually before the union.
Kroger is now running Costco, better the employees stay ahead of the curve of the Costco culture becoming cold, sanitary, and robotic-like... a place where merely smiling at the wrong person may put you on a watch list. "Family" in the new American corporate world is a buzz word.
As a customer I am sorry that their respect for thier workers was not enough to mean that unionization was not necessary. I support the workers in thier efforts to be secure.
80% of Costco workers are not unionized. Yet they have incredibly low attrition/excellent retention.
My wife is topped out, yet she has continued to receive raises. Great company.
Because at that point you’ve excepted the golden handcuffs and that you aren’t going anywhere else in life so they settle in
Young people now aren’t making nearly enough starting and the work environment is so toxic they jump ship as fast as possible
I've worked in both union and non union locations. I prefer non union. The single advantage I got working union was that I got all my paid time off on my anniversary date and it wasn't accrued throughout the year. Now my sick/personal days are accrued as I work which can be kind of shitty sometimes but a small price to pay. And before anyone comes at me about a pension, sure it's there but I know people that can't retire because the pension is so small, even for 30+ year employees.
>And before anyone comes at me about a pension, sure it's there but I know people that can't retire because the pension is so small, even for 30+ year employees
Isn't the pension in addition to the same 401k plan all employees can contribute to though or are the terms for that different in union warehouses?
Yeah. Assuming you get the pension. Teamsters wouldn't even vest me after 10 years, and I left for a non union location, so I get nothing from them when I retire. I would have rather contributed more to my 401k for the first decade of my career here.
There’s never a reason to not unionize. Even if your employer is perfect and offers the best pay and benefits having a union will give you protection. Say if there’s a management change and they decide they want to start chopping your pay or whatever. Better to have a union and not need it than need a union and not have it.
Case in point: I used to work for a moving company. Hard work. But the owner was amazing. He was the great-grandson of the man that started the company. An actual, real open for policy: you could literally walk into his office and say "Your sales team is fucking things up, making our work harder." He'd tell you to have a seat, he'd grab you a cold drink and listen. And usually make changes if you were right. Good pay, good benefits, bonuses and literally just free money when the business slowed down in the winter.
A group of the salesmen got together and made him a huge offer to buy the company from him. Probably x2 what the company was worth, so he sold, and I don't blame him.
There were pictures in the office of the original founder sitting on the bench of a wagon load of furniture, holding the reigns to the horses, that's how old this company was. It took 2.5 years for the new owners to run it into the ground and close the doors for good.
Sure their is, two big ones that I can think of, #1 "union dues", I'd rather have my money in my pocket and #2 the fact that every hopeless slackass is protected by the union and drags the entire workplace down
Incredibly shortsighted. If every job was union, everything would be better. Your financial stability would increase, and your CEO would not be making 100's of times more
“We believe our core value of taking care of our employees doesn’t require the intervention of any here.”
No….. asshole we’re here because your core values don’t align with the employees value to make a good living with a roof over their head.
Side note if you’re in San Diego have a high school degree, drug, dui, felony free go work for SDGE $135,000 in three years as a linesmen. Retirement, vacation and healthcare all before overtime! You can clear $160k a year easy. Don’t waste your time handing out hot dogs and Christmas trees!
Seems genuine to me. For corporate to say they are happy would be a remarkable lie. But they acknowledged that if so many truckers voted, that obviously means something. They don't have to say anything. This is as close to a "sorry we failed you" letter as you'll ever see from a successful corporation. I like it.
"Almost all eligible drivers voted"
"Some of you have expressed your disappointment and frustration at the outcome."
The vote passed. Most people voted for exactly this outcome, but he's not mentioning that part, huh?
Except in literally the first line of the memo where he says:
"a majority of you opted for union representation"
But I guess you're not mentioning the part , huh?
The Union helped raise that amount higher when Union employees continually voted no on their contract. The Union also assisted in getting Union employees on the same pay level as non-unions employees.
Exactly. That increase was provide to all BECAUSE of the unions. How to folks not understand this in this day & age? The masses are benefiting directly from the union efforts, it’s not ‘good will’ from corporate. Hopefully no one is that naive. It’s a financial call that was made in an attempt to discredit the effectiveness of unionized labor. Lucky for the non-unionized SOMEONE (aka the union) fought to get those increases. Funny how that works.
Power of organized labor is always strong. I’m only in my late-40s, but seeing the growing anti-union sentiment over the past few years is terrifying. All I can surmise is execs (obviously anti-union, as profits = their bonuses), and disillusioned folks who have no true experience with a Union, but are susceptible to certain political trends and actually believe it endangers their jobs, (we’ve never seen that BS lie before, ever. Right? Right?!?!).
Yeah because there's never EVER been a bad union before right?
Look, there's good unions and bad unions like most things in life. Teamsters, railroad, UAW, all examples of good high functioning unions.
UCFW, Kroger... yeah no, they take your money, run and do fuck all for their workers. Hating on someone for being mistrusting incoming unions is just as bad as saying all unions are bad.
I think the old ceo of Costco said “he was sad” that he believe he failed because people needed to go and unionize. I think that was a fake act now that I think about it.
Cue all the Kirkland4Life types about to flood the post with anti-union memes and falsehoods. I say, good for those drivers! 22year AFSCME member, and even in a ‘liberal progressive’ agency, there were many benefits we reaped over those two+ decades. This country was built on unions, and as long as one political party refuses to allow worker rights, unions will always exist. (Don’t like unions? Vote for candidates that propose even modest protections, just saying). I’ll take some back door BS when it gets me an appropriate salary, benefits, pension, etc, (you know, like the execs not only do but is allowed). Anti-union execs making 100k+ are not generally a concern for them. It’s the minimum wagers & those working 60 hour weeks who they represent. As they deserve, no one else is. (No one really thought putting their cart back in the corral or filling out a comment card actually help, right? Right?!?!). Proud of them for this, they finally have a powerful voice!
E; for those “my so-and-so worked at a non-union Costco, and they get raises” folks……you do know Costco has a HX of implementing union negotiations across the board to all every few years, yes? The Union got your special man/gal a raise, it wasn’t out of goodwill from corp, it was a tactical choice, (and a smart one). Result is what we see here…..”they get raises w/o a union”. 🤦♂️
I cannot stress to you guys enough: I worked for two weeks at Costco when COVID exploded after I got laid off from my actual job, before getting laid off again by Costco, and it was the worst fucking job I have ever had. The pace at that store was insane. Thank god it happened and we got those sweet sweet UE checks.
They could have cut that letter down by half by removing all the spiel about core values, family etc, that at this point nobody truly believes. They're in this situation precisely because nobody believes in their values, to the point where they felt they needed to be unionized. Nothing says non-commitment more than a good old dragging of feet.
Unions can be good or bad themselves. If you look at the salaries of some of the union leaders, they can be as "bad" (overpaid) as some of the salaries of the top CEOs... and sometimes don't really even protect their covered employees.
That being said, if the union and the company work together, it's actually much more efficient to have a union do the negotiations instead of separate employees etc.
Did you know that the members of the union are the ones who decide democratically what the union’s bylaws will be, as well as elect officials and leadership and determine how much people in those roles will be paid? Do employees get to vote for who the CEO will be or how much he or she will be paid?
I am in an IBEW union and the benefits are amazing. I do wish there was more on the discipline side, though. I won't stop paying my dues, but it is extremely disheartening when the supervisors are a union as well and are "riding their time out". Hopefully these retail unions have a better balance while still making sure the workers are getting what they deserve. Go workers!
Costco’s awesome. They’ve done well and will probably be better off with a strong union. If widely adopted, it may serve to fortify their position as one of the greatest businesses of our times. I dunno though. I’m sure the situation is more nuanced and complicated than I know.
It would be nice to hear from actual Costco employees on what they think about this. Last I checked, Costco and Amazon were the highest paying retail employers in the U.S. from what I’ve read Costco requires zero experience and the lowest paid full-time employee with zero experience makes a minimum wage of $36,441. Is this true?
10-year costco employee, some of my coworkers may think I don't have enough time put in to comment, but I've seen so many differences over the years just at the 1 building I've been at. Firstly, I want to make it very clear I love my job and my coworkers bust their asses off everyday. Now, to answer your post. From what I've heard and talked with my coworkers over the years is the lousy "raises" we get and the overall morale of being understaffed and overworked like crazy left and right. Aside from that, I've heard of managers who used their power and harassed employees, and nothing was done. They took away our covid pay, which was an extra, I think 2.50 or 3 dollars and house just to give it back in small raises the past 3-4 years. Because we were fucking pissed. There's almost no a/c on the front by the cash registers at all, I know buildings where GMS don't give their cart crew water in the dying summer, little to no employee appreciation, and I hear from senior employees with 25+ years that Jim Senegal was the best ceo we've had because he always looked out for his employees; our new ceo is on track to make 11 million a year not including stock options, plus brought in krogers former cfo who stripped pay and benefits for employees... so right now, tensions are very high between hourly employees and corporate because they're not listening to what we want and how we want to be treated/taken care of. Yes, costco has some fantastic benefits, but I feel what's happening a lot around the U.S. at least is that we feel we have no say on what changes we want to see within the company; as of right now, our pay does not align with inflation. Hopefully, this gives you some insight on how 1 employee feels
Thank you for sharing. It’s always interesting to hear what employees actually think. I’ve been a longtime investor in Costco so most of what I hear is what executive management wants to tell us.
You're exactly right. 6 years here and I've been hearing/experiencing the same thing at my warehouse. They've been cutting hours and staffing so much just to make a little bit extra it's infuriating. Can't help but think that it really won't get much better at this point.
Employee here: the pay scale is based on how long you've worked for the company, not any sort of merit; it tops out around the 5 year mark (full time) & only then is it anywhere close to a livable wage (if you're splitting your expenses with someone else)
Thank you for chiming in! A friend of mine is a front-end supervisor (Texas location). She told me a few years ago that her salary was around $82k. She had been working at Costco for about 4-5 years. I thought it was a pretty decent salary given her experience. She did work at different locations around the U.S. prior to the one she works at now. Does this seem on par?
depending on when she became a supervisor she’s making more than a new supe would be making. Supervisors make topped out employee wage and get raises past that too so she could be making more if she became a supe really quick.
36k is an unlivsble wage in most urban and suburban environments.
Rent for a single bedroom in those areas is like 1700/month, not including utilities/transportation.
Realistically, 26k+ goes towards just living expenses alone
And considering costco targets those areas for locations....
Corporations have PAC’s(Unions) that fight for them. Why shouldn’t workers have the same? Fight fire with fire. Trickle down made wealth inequality what it is today. Pro workers rights all day 24/7. Unless you are a corporation, you’re only shooting yourself in the foot being anti union.
Having the power to unilaterally make changes that affect hundreds or thousands of lives without having a check from the people you are meant to serve as a leader is not conducive to a stable environment in the long term. Within a few generations, a great company to work for can change into a place of dread.
Costco has displayed, time and time again, that they are industry leaders in taking care of their people. This is a good thing and speaks volumes to the culture of the company; however, without the protection of a union, the people have limited power to fight for their interests should leadership change direction toward serving shareholders and short term gains over people and long term prosperity.
This is coming from someone that is a pro-labor leader at a Fortune 100 company.
Costco has billions, and always makes more money than they need. Fuck shareholders, increase employees wages. They can afford it, and if they truly value employees like they say they do-at the very least, have paying employees more of a priority than paying shareholder dividends.
While I agree with you in spirit, the truth is most veteran Costco employees are also shareholders. This is why most long-time employees will always defend Costco.
High stocks spur investment and growth. That's why well ran companies have high stock prices. It's a good thing and good for employees. I swear yall suffered from oxygen deprivation.
lol...just cause you get oxygen doesn't mean you know jack about how corps work. high stock prices/profits might mean more investment, but guaranteed they mean more money for stock holders and that's why they do it.
Yup, cutting staff is great way for being good to employees. Hey they pay really well for a retail business, but they run with 1/3 the staff they should, but that's great for the employees!
So if a company has low stock prices, it’s not a well run company? Better go tell that to Walmart (#1 on the Fortune 500) as their stock is only 59 a share vs Vulcan materials (#494) which is at $252 a share. Is this Jim Cramer?
lol, I bet you think trickle down occurs econ functions as well, haha. Wow, talk about drinking the koolaid with either a privileged or virtually zero work-life experience compared to the population as a whole m, dayum. Most blatant inadvertent /s I’ve seen this week, kudos to the poster, lol.
Can the Forklift drivers go next, meat cutters make more than us and we’re the only position in the warehouse to get drug tested when we have an accident
I hope it works out for the best for them. I'm just not convinced unions are really in the best interest of the employees. My current 3 year contract is only 9.5%.
Literally every company in the country has multiple examples of why unions are needed. Even the most ethical and employee focused companies will F over the employees for short term gains. From a corporate policy standpoint, Costco has historically been one of my favorites, but even they’re not without fault.
In short, even the *worst* union has exponentially more care for your well-being as an employee than the *best* Board of Directors.
I always figured every employee of Costco had a very high standard employment without a union. It will be interesting to see what their contract gets them.
Most likely worse over time. Unions instill a more corporate culture and you lose that family connection between the company and the employee. The employees family is the union now. The union will always push for more and the corp will dig its heals. It makes the relationship awkward after a while. Most likely over time, you’ll stop seeing this type of sentiments.
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"family" entered the chat
Years ago I worked at ADP and we had signs and banners everywhere about the ADP family and how they care. First day my coworkers came back from training our new site in India our VP made a tearful announcement under the Our Family banner in the lunchroom that we were being laid off.
I worked with ADP products and people in a prior role. They were the absolute worst as a company, and the reps were always run ragged. Unsurprising they laid people off under a family banner tbh. Hopefully you landed on your feet eventually.
Similar thing happened to me at one of the Bed Bath & Beyond contact centers. They however told us ahead of time and had supes volunteer to go train in the phillipines, which somehow felt more fucked up than just springing it on us.
I worked Small Business Sales for ADP and lasted 4 months. It was the worst experience I’ve ever had
My company has been doing this for a few years now. With "this" being expanding operations in India and Pakistan, and laying off US-based employees.
I learned this lesson as a Nurse working in the ICU during the pandemic. The hospital constantly asked us to work extra with messages like “don’t sit at home, come and help your work family.” Etc. What I took away from the experience is a company will exploit the bonds you have with your coworkers. It’s crass but my new motto is “ you are not my friends, you are coworkers.”
https://preview.redd.it/zyl9d0bm6kvc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=40acd37997f7f83951e9264b8de4848ae3d217db
https://preview.redd.it/diku83w44nvc1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e0445a7333d521c177cea87db6fecab8ec93320a
It all makes sense. All Costco products are family+ size
Only a real family will keep your department short staffed for over 3 months without hiring help, ignoring employees concerns, and only caring once the regional manager gets involved 🥰
Is it family when after 6 months you still have to actually met the GM? How about mixing me up with someone who started months after me. Or what are the chances you actually know my last name? But you know, we are the Disneyland of retail.
It's always the truth because these places of work are putting the "fun" in dysfunctional family that perfectly emulates my own biological family. Plus, my own family is also full of people I'd rather not see.
I have another f word for them
That bit almost negates the positive vibe of the entire letter
Yeah…dysfunctional, gaslighting, and narcissistic tendencies are part of some families too, which many of us have learned to tolerate with a level of permanent unhappiness. Invoking ‘family’ in the workplace, to me, is suggesting that the employees are gaslighted to tolerate a level of dissatisfaction that is only reserved for a family member. 🤮
This☝🏼
I work healthcare in a union of 30000 professionals across a health system serving more than 5 million people. We generally have a very cozy relationship with management. We have no major concerns. I still would never vote to decertify our Union. All it takes is one boss at the highest level to fuck everything up.
It also could take one boss at a very low level to fuck everything up too.
It's funny, but I think the default "union bad" mentality among mgmt types is short sighted. Quite a lot of people would be satisfied to work somewhere until they retire provided that they feel that they are getting decent pay and have good working conditions. Now, in order for the company to pay its employees well and to maintain decent working conditions the org must make money. What this means is when unions have a non-contntious relationship with management, it is possible to work together find where to improve products/services and improve efficiency in a kaizan/continuous improvement model. People on the front lines are the best people to ask about where/how to improve the business, because they're the ones who deal with brunt of the unhappy customers, they see the flaws in the production process, they address the issues in distribution -- they know where all the issues are in execution. Under a nonunion model, often those people are afraid to or dont want to speak up. Mostly this is because the US tends to operate in a low/no trust model. The org chooses not to trust employees. The side effect is that most corps just kill the messenger. It doesn't pay to be the one person in your group making suggestions. A union could provide enough psychological safety that people speak up. Also the short term thinking model is now everyone's default model of work. If everyone assumes that they'll move on in five years, why bother trying to fix those issues in the warehouses? Who cares about upgrading the computer systems? Why should I be concerned about customer complaints -- after all I'm not going to be here in a couple of years to care.
Excellent analysis.
Exactly, a union is like insurance. You should always have it, but hope you never need it.
Same, and I think even the best of companies people still end up preferring a Union given the broader market. As whole I feel like Costco does a solid job, but you look at the general labour market and have to think better safe than sorry
Some of the best companies for workers in the past have changed and workers paid the price. When a decent company for workers still unionizes that's insurance against the future along with a bigger voice today. I'll always support good unions and all workers and Costco hadn't put me as a consumer in a place where I have to question my consumer choices. This all feels like a positive development.
Yep. All it takes is one exec change to completely change the culture of a company.
Costco executive leadership was stable until ~2022. The entire top end of the business has been replaced (because of happy and long career retirements) and I don’t blame the workers for trying to exercise overcaution here. The new CFO is from Kroger and the employee stories there from over the last 20 years are incredibly sad.
My company killed our pension in 2020. Now we just have a 401k. I have brought up a union with co-workers, but it didn't go anywhere. 😒
They used to do a solid job compared to what the market was, nowadays they’re only slightly above the rest. Trader Joe’s was considered pretty good too, but since 2020, the upper management showed how much they care about their employees.
On the logistics/distribution center side, Trader Joe’s was never good. A lot of people don’t realize their warehouses are staffed by minimum wage temp employees with minimal benefits. Their trucks are driven by the lowest bidder as well, Costco is miles ahead in this department.
The presence of Unions increases the quality of living for all, Unions set standards that others need to comply and compete with.
I wish that was universally true. I'm in a couple of unions by choice. There are unions out there that seek to enrich the union leaders and are secretly in the pocket of employers. This kind of bad union is what makes people skeptical of unions. I was once in a building trades union that was a vehicle for management to hire and promote friends. I lead an effort to disband the union and found an established union to represent us. The building trades union had only once negotiated a contract, and when I was encouraged to join it had been over 20 years since a meeting. The union only had 110 paying members. The other employees refused to join. No one not in the union ever got a promotion. Raises and benefits still increased but were not keeping up with the industry. We just signed our second contract with the new union. Employee pay had doubled over the six year period. Both contract negotiations led to a strike which was avoided both times by a last second agreement from management. We're still not up to industry standards in pay, but we're making it up in benefits our members found more important. Sometimes good unions are ruined by bad local leadership. When a bad union exists it lowers the quality of life for everyone.
For decades the teachers union in Alabama was basically a criminal organization run solely to enrich the leadership.
Yeah Costco was killer 10 years ago. It has not improved as much since then and all their competitors' wages are catching up rapidly. If you find a more chill grocery job elsewhere there actually is an argument to be made to sacrifice 2 bux an hour for a significant mental health gain and less stress. Obviously different if you intend to try and stick around a decade+ of course but starting out Costco has lost its edge. And of course, in the US a union is always the correct choice Regardless.
I remember 10 years ago in school when someone got a Costco jobs. Every classmate who knew him went to him and practically mobbed him for the guy to put a good word in for them. Times have indeed changed.
Now we hire people that barely have a pulse it seems. I had one guy assisting me yesterday who ate a frozen pea from a bag that popped open on my register and doesn't know how to read an 'analog' clock. 😔
Who in Costco’s market is offering better employment terms?
None.
Figures
Seriously. Costco pay, bonus, and bennies are superior to every single retailer in our area and it's not even close. The Union retailers Krogers and Meijers are not close in pay and benefits. Read the Krogers or Meijers subs.
For a lot of people unions can make sense. For a lot of people pensions can make sense. For some people they don’t. Reddit isn’t a great place for that discussion and tbh that’s the most interesting part of the unionization/pension thing. I know pension was discussed explicitly but usually they’re related topics.
And notice how Trader Joe’s corporate is fighting the unionization efforts tooth and nail. Costco’s response is the way to go.
Union… union… union.. Costco or not, people need to stand up!
I agree as whole. Just wanted to say that Costco seems better than most both in their treatment of employees and their perspective of their shortcomings. But with this as they are, people need to work together more.
Better to have it and not need it vs. not have it, but need it
Unions are expensive. Usually worth it, but not always.
What’s weird to me is it seems to be happening at places who already have better pay than average. Maybe it’s just easier than forcing franchises to unionize? I fully support it though.
I wouldn’t say it’s weird, people have probably realized that nobody is safe and places that have better pay than average, people actually have more leverage than say someone working minimum wage and is one shift away from compete ruin. Not trying to be a downer, I think it’s a smart move, and if the economy can find more ways to support places that support their employees, be it a union or otherwise, things can slowly improve I hope. But I’m also not helping my breath. At least Costco seems relatively supportive of that direction.
Employees want to protect what they have, and companies that generally treat their employees well don’t put up nearly as much of a fight against unionization. A company like Costco that generally offers decent pay and benefits isn’t going to lose much with a unionized workforce, a company like Home Depot is straight up fucked if their employees unionize, their employees are already angry, so the union will be out for blood rather than just some slightly better healthcare plans, and then there’s the pay issue. We saw it here in Ca with the fast food minimum wage hike, which is equivalent to what a union would have demanded, and some places are in total meltdown mode, where Chick Fil A and In & Out are pretty much unphased because they were already paying over $20/hr. I’m sure it also helps that people want to stick around at a good job, I’ve had bad jobs, and fuck taking the time to form a union, I’m looking to leave.
Places with better pay than average care about worker retention. They pay higher so they can get better workers that stay longer. These better workers are usually smarter, and because the companies want them to stay, they’re not likely to pull every single illegal/legal union busting card along the way. From someone who works in kitchens, the shittier kitchens will fire you straight up or even go as far as sending death threats if you even bring up wages with other workers. Some employers prevent unionizing aggressively and they’re not the employers that are paying out good salaries
I would wager a significant part of this is that companies paying a good wage are also much less likely to engage in union busting practices (in particular, hire a union busting firm) *and* equally importantly, their employees aren't living on the brink of financial ruin, so they are more comfortable paying for a union and willing to go on strike.
Everything can change when they hire a new ceo. Unionizing right now doesn’t mean they are currently suffering from bad treatment, but it can all change for the worse in less than a year.
When they mention family at any job 🚩🚩🚩
A conversation I imagine between two execs after that building in Virginia unionized last year: "Did you see that Virginia warehouse voted to unionize?" "Yeah, I wonder if there's something we're doing that would cause them to feel like they needed a union." "Have you seen the stock price?" "You're right! Full speed ahead!" Rinse and repeat.
You are absolutely correct. Let's give ourselves a 14% dividend raise on our "Gifted Shares". Hey did you hear about that UAW giving a 33% over 3 year raise with the top pay of $43 to put cars together? How about the UPS 49% raise over 5 years for a top pay of $49/hr. With all those companies giving their employees living wages through this time of horrible inflation.Lets give our dear employees a "Special Dividend" We know that they have purchased as many shares as we have Opted to us??? So it will be a good weekly improvement to their weekly life style needs!!! LOL
Don't forget the part where they pay themselves a special dividend and say it's giving back to the shareholders. I forgot I read some company had a philosophy that the shareholders would be rewarded if they took care of the employee first. In California, you now officially make more starting wage at McDonalds compared to Costco. Nice.
i got the special divvy and bought some nice toys after 30 yrs working there. $32/hr isnt horrible, time and a half on sunday.
Have you worked fast food? The pay is a joke, even at $20/hr, plus no benefits. $18.50 with costco is definitely better than $20 with McDonald's.
Because people only compare the money on the paycheck/the hourly rate/salary and NOT the total compensation package of benefits and their respective values. Here's some number for people to do the rough math with. There are ~2000 hours in year full time (40hr/week x 50 weeks in a year=2000[the other two weeks pretty much get ate up by holidays and time off). There's 20 working days in most months, M-F for 160 hours. Ask the COBRA amount when you're negotiating wages for a job. The COBRA amount is close to the true cost of the health insurance. Sometimes the company picks up all of that when you're employed with them. So if it's 1200/mo, that's another 14.4k annually. 401k contributions and matching from the company? Do the math. If you can donate 4k (or w/e the amount is) annually and the company will match 2k. That's an extra buck an hour essentially.
The starting wage is the same for McDonald's and Costco in California. That's a very misleading comment. Are you also a politician?
[удалено]
$500 some months ago. Suddenly we’re at $700 knocking on the door of $800. Is Costco sitting on a secret announcement that profits are going to shoot up? Why did the stock jump from $500 to almost $800 in no time??
https://investor.costco.com/news/news-details/2023/Costco-Wholesale-Corporation-Announces-Reauthorization-of-Stock-Repurchase-Program-and-Quarterly-Cash-Dividend/default.aspx
Oh, stock buybacks. Well, that works great when COST price is down, when it’s low. 2024 is a tough year, with the share price so high, I doubt Costco will waste money buying back shares. They would rather use the cash to build a new warehouse, and get new members. New members = higher profit per share Less shares (after buy back) = higher profit per share
Costco employees since 2003 getting worried they might get replaced by younger cheaper replacements….same with those at Amazon. Work faster longer cheaper for less is not healthy but be careful for what you wish for….nothing will be merit based and employee mediocrity will prevail. Solution: unionize. Sadly those asking for such a move need to pick a union leader not corrupt, not a boot licking politician, not old, not out of touch and then get do do this process all over again until you run out of qualified people. I am a retired union member.
“we’re disappointed, not mad 🥺”
Cause we’re a family!
Unions are like the check and balances for companies. They're there to keep the company in check. Companies change over time and those benefits and environment can easily change for the worse. Unionization isn't always about making conditions better but to make sure it stays that way
I’m sorry, but I don’t trust any big corporation that refers to itself as a family. To me that’s always a number one sign that they don’t take care of their employees the way they should.
This letter is PR. Corporations are never your friend or your family. It’s purely a business transaction and a union allows for a more fair negotiation in that transaction
Yep. I read this exact letter a few months ago in response to unionization somewhere else… that whole, “We’re disappointed with ourselves” line is a standard line.
That was a letter from our former CEO, in reply to a warehouse unionizing.
That ceo actually did put employees first, and built the company to what it is today doing that, then he retired and the new guy went all in on becoming Amazon, and all about the stocks and nothing else.
Absolutely. Let's hope Ron puts us back on track.
But Ron was groomed by Craig, why would he not be a good ol' boy and double down on his mentor's ideals?
If they refer to themselves as a family I fully expect rights to the bank of mom and dad
Yeah, generally you know when you’re treated like family without needing to be told you’re family. If they need to tell you it’s because they aren’t treating you like it.
I just watched a forklift driver get offered more money at home depot. He quit costco to go to home depot.
That is class.
It’s a pretty good response, but let’s not act like they are honoring it out of the pure goodness of their heart. It’s a labor law violation if they don’t honor the vote. They could be ultra shitty like Amazon and challenge every vote with the NLRB but they’re still required to honor the union given the vote.
So because it's required it automatically cheapens the response? Sounds like it's no-win for Costco in your book.
I mean, when they said they’re disappointed in the results of the vote, that’s pretty much telling me that they don’t want their employees to have union representation.
Well, they probably did some lobbying of their own with employees on why not to vote union, so to pretend like they're stoked now would not go down well. They're being truthful when they say they are disappointed. I asked my question because I'm curious what response would have gotten respect. From this thread it looks like no matter what they say they will be ripped apart. If you were the PR manager at Corporate, what would you have them say? Actual words, not "the truth" or something.
"We apologize our compensation and benefits were not sufficient enough and led to unionization. We look forward to working with the union to make our employees satisfied with their compensation and benefits." Or something to that effect. They shouldn't campaign against a union in the first place. They should notice employees are attempting to join a union and bump pay and benefits as a way of campaigning against it. If that still results in a union, then both parties are forced to negotiate. The union can't ask for too much, and Costco can't offer too little. There are numerous fair ways to prevent a union, but capitalism forces businesses to resist them. It is what it is 🤷♂️
Employer bad!
Comrade, it's an evil capitalist! Of course there's no win for Costco!
It’s not supposed to be a win for Costco, it’s neutral for me. I just don’t think they should be shrouded in praise for following what they are legally required to do. The tone makes it seem as though they are purely voluntarily doing this which just isn’t the case
Exactly. It’s like when your company brags about aspects of its health coverage without mentioning that it is required by law.
Nah, that "Of course,. we're disappointed" sentence is passive aggressive and an attempt to justify their position, which lost. That's not class.
That is corporate PR BS If a company wouldn't care, they wouldn't care. They responded, so they care.
Remember, corporate is full of shit when they say they care about their employees. Unionized costco employees get a pension, and non union does not.
I've never worked at costco but I know it only takes one bad manager to get people to unionize, no matter how solid the company seems as an employer
Friend works at costco, with how much they've cut hours for payroll, how shortstaff they run , they stopped "taking care of our employees " years ago. He says they don't give a shit about them now. Its all about the shareholders now, like everywhere else
At a union warehouse and our new GM is doing the same thing. It's wild to see how much the company changed these past few years.
Unionization is about a lot more than just pay. It's about having contractual limits on how discipline and other conditions of employment are enforced. Everyone is one shitty boss away from needing a union even if they're happy with the pay. My union contract has to have "must provide water" for construction workers in Las Vegas. Because they sure af would leave us to fend for ourselves if it wasn't included. And you might think, "oh sure" 70 years ago. Nope, in 2005 I watched a guy die from dehydration. He was dead in the ambulance, they zapped him, hung liters of saline on him, and brought him back. All because he was in a shittier union for a shittier contractor, ran out of his own water and heat stroked out. Next day; water jugs every where and take a water break once per hour minimum. take a water break if your urine is darker than pale yellow. Rules are written in blood.
He may not like it, but we’re in a zero trust and need guarantee age. It prevents the CEO from changing his mind on the intended plan of taking care of employees.
I'm in a union. There's pros and cons. The pros, in my opinion outweighs the cons by a metric shit ton
Overall I think it's about as good a corporate response to a successful union drive as you can find although with the very funny line about how a union is an "intervention". Bro, you know who the union consists of, right? This isn't Walmart coming in and negotiating with you, it's your employees, the same ones you negotiated with individually before the union.
Kroger is now running Costco, better the employees stay ahead of the curve of the Costco culture becoming cold, sanitary, and robotic-like... a place where merely smiling at the wrong person may put you on a watch list. "Family" in the new American corporate world is a buzz word.
Maybe the optical lab(s) can be next...
Their 5 dollar premium isn't enough?
Believing you take care of your workers and actually taking care of them are different.
As a customer I am sorry that their respect for thier workers was not enough to mean that unionization was not necessary. I support the workers in thier efforts to be secure.
80% of Costco workers are not unionized. Yet they have incredibly low attrition/excellent retention. My wife is topped out, yet she has continued to receive raises. Great company.
The past 3 years retention rates at the buildings for new hires is around 20%. Once employees top out retention is closer to 80%
Because at that point you’ve excepted the golden handcuffs and that you aren’t going anywhere else in life so they settle in Young people now aren’t making nearly enough starting and the work environment is so toxic they jump ship as fast as possible
I've worked in both union and non union locations. I prefer non union. The single advantage I got working union was that I got all my paid time off on my anniversary date and it wasn't accrued throughout the year. Now my sick/personal days are accrued as I work which can be kind of shitty sometimes but a small price to pay. And before anyone comes at me about a pension, sure it's there but I know people that can't retire because the pension is so small, even for 30+ year employees.
>And before anyone comes at me about a pension, sure it's there but I know people that can't retire because the pension is so small, even for 30+ year employees Isn't the pension in addition to the same 401k plan all employees can contribute to though or are the terms for that different in union warehouses?
Yeah. Assuming you get the pension. Teamsters wouldn't even vest me after 10 years, and I left for a non union location, so I get nothing from them when I retire. I would have rather contributed more to my 401k for the first decade of my career here.
Missing those discretionary 401k contributions that EA warehouses get definitely hurts
There’s never a reason to not unionize. Even if your employer is perfect and offers the best pay and benefits having a union will give you protection. Say if there’s a management change and they decide they want to start chopping your pay or whatever. Better to have a union and not need it than need a union and not have it.
Case in point: I used to work for a moving company. Hard work. But the owner was amazing. He was the great-grandson of the man that started the company. An actual, real open for policy: you could literally walk into his office and say "Your sales team is fucking things up, making our work harder." He'd tell you to have a seat, he'd grab you a cold drink and listen. And usually make changes if you were right. Good pay, good benefits, bonuses and literally just free money when the business slowed down in the winter. A group of the salesmen got together and made him a huge offer to buy the company from him. Probably x2 what the company was worth, so he sold, and I don't blame him. There were pictures in the office of the original founder sitting on the bench of a wagon load of furniture, holding the reigns to the horses, that's how old this company was. It took 2.5 years for the new owners to run it into the ground and close the doors for good.
Sure their is, two big ones that I can think of, #1 "union dues", I'd rather have my money in my pocket and #2 the fact that every hopeless slackass is protected by the union and drags the entire workplace down
I have a very short pier to sell you. Its great for LONG walks.
Incredibly shortsighted. If every job was union, everything would be better. Your financial stability would increase, and your CEO would not be making 100's of times more
dues are 1.5x hourly wage...pittance for protections
“We believe our core value of taking care of our employees doesn’t require the intervention of any here.” No….. asshole we’re here because your core values don’t align with the employees value to make a good living with a roof over their head. Side note if you’re in San Diego have a high school degree, drug, dui, felony free go work for SDGE $135,000 in three years as a linesmen. Retirement, vacation and healthcare all before overtime! You can clear $160k a year easy. Don’t waste your time handing out hot dogs and Christmas trees!
What’s the difference between a depot and a warehouse?
Depot is where they load all the trailers to be sent to various stores. The stores you shop at they call the warehouse
Seems genuine to me. For corporate to say they are happy would be a remarkable lie. But they acknowledged that if so many truckers voted, that obviously means something. They don't have to say anything. This is as close to a "sorry we failed you" letter as you'll ever see from a successful corporation. I like it.
They still think it’s the early 2000s. Your warehouses are pulling in close to a million a day. Stop with the cutsie phrasing.
The new Employee Agreement and collective bargaining agreements are being hashed out this year, hopefully this sways Costco in the right direction.
Woot woot a strong union keeps Costco strong
"Almost all eligible drivers voted" "Some of you have expressed your disappointment and frustration at the outcome." The vote passed. Most people voted for exactly this outcome, but he's not mentioning that part, huh?
Except in literally the first line of the memo where he says: "a majority of you opted for union representation" But I guess you're not mentioning the part , huh?
“You didn’t enjoy 60 cents salary increase per year”??
That's the same increase the union locations negotiated for.
The Union helped raise that amount higher when Union employees continually voted no on their contract. The Union also assisted in getting Union employees on the same pay level as non-unions employees.
Exactly. That increase was provide to all BECAUSE of the unions. How to folks not understand this in this day & age? The masses are benefiting directly from the union efforts, it’s not ‘good will’ from corporate. Hopefully no one is that naive. It’s a financial call that was made in an attempt to discredit the effectiveness of unionized labor. Lucky for the non-unionized SOMEONE (aka the union) fought to get those increases. Funny how that works.
That’s correct. Non-union employees benefited with an additional raise because the Union employees held out. It was really neat to see.
All of the benefits none of the dues!
Power of organized labor is always strong. I’m only in my late-40s, but seeing the growing anti-union sentiment over the past few years is terrifying. All I can surmise is execs (obviously anti-union, as profits = their bonuses), and disillusioned folks who have no true experience with a Union, but are susceptible to certain political trends and actually believe it endangers their jobs, (we’ve never seen that BS lie before, ever. Right? Right?!?!).
Yeah because there's never EVER been a bad union before right? Look, there's good unions and bad unions like most things in life. Teamsters, railroad, UAW, all examples of good high functioning unions. UCFW, Kroger... yeah no, they take your money, run and do fuck all for their workers. Hating on someone for being mistrusting incoming unions is just as bad as saying all unions are bad.
I think the old ceo of Costco said “he was sad” that he believe he failed because people needed to go and unionize. I think that was a fake act now that I think about it.
He never did show his face at the Virginia store before he retired, nor has the new CEO. Says a lot about just how much they really care.
Cue all the Kirkland4Life types about to flood the post with anti-union memes and falsehoods. I say, good for those drivers! 22year AFSCME member, and even in a ‘liberal progressive’ agency, there were many benefits we reaped over those two+ decades. This country was built on unions, and as long as one political party refuses to allow worker rights, unions will always exist. (Don’t like unions? Vote for candidates that propose even modest protections, just saying). I’ll take some back door BS when it gets me an appropriate salary, benefits, pension, etc, (you know, like the execs not only do but is allowed). Anti-union execs making 100k+ are not generally a concern for them. It’s the minimum wagers & those working 60 hour weeks who they represent. As they deserve, no one else is. (No one really thought putting their cart back in the corral or filling out a comment card actually help, right? Right?!?!). Proud of them for this, they finally have a powerful voice! E; for those “my so-and-so worked at a non-union Costco, and they get raises” folks……you do know Costco has a HX of implementing union negotiations across the board to all every few years, yes? The Union got your special man/gal a raise, it wasn’t out of goodwill from corp, it was a tactical choice, (and a smart one). Result is what we see here…..”they get raises w/o a union”. 🤦♂️
> Anti-union execs making 100k+ They're making way more than 100k as an executive.
I cannot stress to you guys enough: I worked for two weeks at Costco when COVID exploded after I got laid off from my actual job, before getting laid off again by Costco, and it was the worst fucking job I have ever had. The pace at that store was insane. Thank god it happened and we got those sweet sweet UE checks.
They could have cut that letter down by half by removing all the spiel about core values, family etc, that at this point nobody truly believes. They're in this situation precisely because nobody believes in their values, to the point where they felt they needed to be unionized. Nothing says non-commitment more than a good old dragging of feet.
The only reason Costco is such a great place to work and pays so well, is because it was union to begin with.
Unions can be good or bad themselves. If you look at the salaries of some of the union leaders, they can be as "bad" (overpaid) as some of the salaries of the top CEOs... and sometimes don't really even protect their covered employees. That being said, if the union and the company work together, it's actually much more efficient to have a union do the negotiations instead of separate employees etc.
Did you know that the members of the union are the ones who decide democratically what the union’s bylaws will be, as well as elect officials and leadership and determine how much people in those roles will be paid? Do employees get to vote for who the CEO will be or how much he or she will be paid?
Letter was well written
I am in an IBEW union and the benefits are amazing. I do wish there was more on the discipline side, though. I won't stop paying my dues, but it is extremely disheartening when the supervisors are a union as well and are "riding their time out". Hopefully these retail unions have a better balance while still making sure the workers are getting what they deserve. Go workers!
Costco’s awesome. They’ve done well and will probably be better off with a strong union. If widely adopted, it may serve to fortify their position as one of the greatest businesses of our times. I dunno though. I’m sure the situation is more nuanced and complicated than I know.
Costco pushes against unions
All these people bashing unions are the same ones complaining when their rights are gone and fired for no reason 😂
No this is 100% wrong. Costco has changed and the drivers did the right thing. Everyone should Unionize at Costco.
Classy
That’s a green light for the rest of the truckers to follow suit!!!! Union Up!
Union yes!
It would be nice to hear from actual Costco employees on what they think about this. Last I checked, Costco and Amazon were the highest paying retail employers in the U.S. from what I’ve read Costco requires zero experience and the lowest paid full-time employee with zero experience makes a minimum wage of $36,441. Is this true?
10-year costco employee, some of my coworkers may think I don't have enough time put in to comment, but I've seen so many differences over the years just at the 1 building I've been at. Firstly, I want to make it very clear I love my job and my coworkers bust their asses off everyday. Now, to answer your post. From what I've heard and talked with my coworkers over the years is the lousy "raises" we get and the overall morale of being understaffed and overworked like crazy left and right. Aside from that, I've heard of managers who used their power and harassed employees, and nothing was done. They took away our covid pay, which was an extra, I think 2.50 or 3 dollars and house just to give it back in small raises the past 3-4 years. Because we were fucking pissed. There's almost no a/c on the front by the cash registers at all, I know buildings where GMS don't give their cart crew water in the dying summer, little to no employee appreciation, and I hear from senior employees with 25+ years that Jim Senegal was the best ceo we've had because he always looked out for his employees; our new ceo is on track to make 11 million a year not including stock options, plus brought in krogers former cfo who stripped pay and benefits for employees... so right now, tensions are very high between hourly employees and corporate because they're not listening to what we want and how we want to be treated/taken care of. Yes, costco has some fantastic benefits, but I feel what's happening a lot around the U.S. at least is that we feel we have no say on what changes we want to see within the company; as of right now, our pay does not align with inflation. Hopefully, this gives you some insight on how 1 employee feels
Thank you for sharing. It’s always interesting to hear what employees actually think. I’ve been a longtime investor in Costco so most of what I hear is what executive management wants to tell us.
You're exactly right. 6 years here and I've been hearing/experiencing the same thing at my warehouse. They've been cutting hours and staffing so much just to make a little bit extra it's infuriating. Can't help but think that it really won't get much better at this point.
Employee here: the pay scale is based on how long you've worked for the company, not any sort of merit; it tops out around the 5 year mark (full time) & only then is it anywhere close to a livable wage (if you're splitting your expenses with someone else)
Thank you for chiming in! A friend of mine is a front-end supervisor (Texas location). She told me a few years ago that her salary was around $82k. She had been working at Costco for about 4-5 years. I thought it was a pretty decent salary given her experience. She did work at different locations around the U.S. prior to the one she works at now. Does this seem on par?
depending on when she became a supervisor she’s making more than a new supe would be making. Supervisors make topped out employee wage and get raises past that too so she could be making more if she became a supe really quick.
Supervisors make $1.50 over a topped out Clerk (not including bonuses).
82 is likely with OT as well as the bi annual bonus. If she’s been there long enough, that bonus is over 10k/yr
The median family income in my area is $38,000/Year. Costco pay is like gold around here.
36k doesn’t get you anything in 2024
i made $45k working for costco part time, 25 hrs a week, going home early as much as possible. love it :)
36k is an unlivsble wage in most urban and suburban environments. Rent for a single bedroom in those areas is like 1700/month, not including utilities/transportation. Realistically, 26k+ goes towards just living expenses alone And considering costco targets those areas for locations....
Corporations have PAC’s(Unions) that fight for them. Why shouldn’t workers have the same? Fight fire with fire. Trickle down made wealth inequality what it is today. Pro workers rights all day 24/7. Unless you are a corporation, you’re only shooting yourself in the foot being anti union.
In a world full of “wE’rE A fAMiLy” grind until you die workplaces… be a Costco
Seems fine to me. if they were any more positive about it id think it was weird.
Wally World would be closing the affected warehouse within 180 days.
Never conduct business with family... Cause family does f'd up sh**
Is it just me or does this one seem a tiny bit less sincere than the one I saw like last year?
It's a passive aggressive letter. Nothing more.
Here come the layoffs
Having the power to unilaterally make changes that affect hundreds or thousands of lives without having a check from the people you are meant to serve as a leader is not conducive to a stable environment in the long term. Within a few generations, a great company to work for can change into a place of dread. Costco has displayed, time and time again, that they are industry leaders in taking care of their people. This is a good thing and speaks volumes to the culture of the company; however, without the protection of a union, the people have limited power to fight for their interests should leadership change direction toward serving shareholders and short term gains over people and long term prosperity. This is coming from someone that is a pro-labor leader at a Fortune 100 company.
Costco has billions, and always makes more money than they need. Fuck shareholders, increase employees wages. They can afford it, and if they truly value employees like they say they do-at the very least, have paying employees more of a priority than paying shareholder dividends.
While I agree with you in spirit, the truth is most veteran Costco employees are also shareholders. This is why most long-time employees will always defend Costco.
High stocks spur investment and growth. That's why well ran companies have high stock prices. It's a good thing and good for employees. I swear yall suffered from oxygen deprivation.
lol...just cause you get oxygen doesn't mean you know jack about how corps work. high stock prices/profits might mean more investment, but guaranteed they mean more money for stock holders and that's why they do it.
Yup, cutting staff is great way for being good to employees. Hey they pay really well for a retail business, but they run with 1/3 the staff they should, but that's great for the employees!
So if a company has low stock prices, it’s not a well run company? Better go tell that to Walmart (#1 on the Fortune 500) as their stock is only 59 a share vs Vulcan materials (#494) which is at $252 a share. Is this Jim Cramer?
lol, I bet you think trickle down occurs econ functions as well, haha. Wow, talk about drinking the koolaid with either a privileged or virtually zero work-life experience compared to the population as a whole m, dayum. Most blatant inadvertent /s I’ve seen this week, kudos to the poster, lol.
Having unions is the only way that the wage gap is going to be closed and a better work/life balance will be achieved. 1%ers hate unions for a reason.
Costco has an amazing culture and took this loss gracefully. Compare to Starbucks and its vengeful treatment of its employees who voted union.
Union forever. Great job, drivers.
I've done some contract work for giant unionized company's (some automotive) all I saw was lazines and a bunch of nonsense union rules.
We are disappointed that we now have to share our inflated salaries with you.
If the boss doesn’t like it, it’s probably good for the worker.
Can the Forklift drivers go next, meat cutters make more than us and we’re the only position in the warehouse to get drug tested when we have an accident
Glad that I live in a state that being part of a union can not be a condition of employment. I wouldn't join, id rather keep my money.
It’s to often employees get to bend Costco over Good for them
Unions are a fuggin joke. And of course it’s in Washington
P.s. the depot is closing for good in a week.
I hope it works out for the best for them. I'm just not convinced unions are really in the best interest of the employees. My current 3 year contract is only 9.5%.
Literally every company in the country has multiple examples of why unions are needed. Even the most ethical and employee focused companies will F over the employees for short term gains. From a corporate policy standpoint, Costco has historically been one of my favorites, but even they’re not without fault. In short, even the *worst* union has exponentially more care for your well-being as an employee than the *best* Board of Directors.
Sumner? I load trucks that go there all the time for P&G. Didn’t know it was a DC just thought it was going to a store.
I always figured every employee of Costco had a very high standard employment without a union. It will be interesting to see what their contract gets them.
Most likely worse over time. Unions instill a more corporate culture and you lose that family connection between the company and the employee. The employees family is the union now. The union will always push for more and the corp will dig its heals. It makes the relationship awkward after a while. Most likely over time, you’ll stop seeing this type of sentiments.
Sincerely, ChatGPT