Workers at the bottom of the scale will get raises of 50 cents to $20, according to the memo. The changes apply to employees at non-union locations.
Huh
this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2025
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Unions and striking work
Which is why Trump will be making them illegal ASAP.
This makes me want to buy a Costco membership, just because of this. I don't even really need much bulk stuff.
Time to go check them out again. If I can justify buying any minimal amount of stuff, I'll do it.
Good on Costco.
This is literally right off the back of Costco making these negotiations as difficult as possible for the union. https://teamster.org/2025/01/costco-walks-away-from-bargaining-table/
On top of that, this new move was so lackluster that a strike could still be on the table. https://www.npr.org/2025/01/31/nx-s1-5280640/costco-pay-raises-teamsters-union-threatens-strike
"Costco is still shorting their workers because nonunion workers lack the retirement security of a defined benefit pension plan and the job protections that come with a union contract," McQuaid said in an email.
Companies are not things to love. The progress we see in this headline was because of the hard work of unions - NOT the goodness in Costco's heartbeat
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Costco's good even if you don't need bulk stuff.
- Not all the food is bulk sizes.
- Their appliances have no extra/hidden fees for delivery, setup, and basic parts like the hoses for a washing machine. Some of the appliance stores near me advertise lower prices, but they add so many fees that it ends up more expensive.
- They have a fantastic return policy.
- Costco Travel have some great flight + hotel packages, all with extras of some sort (eg free breakfast, late checkout, waived parking or resort fee, Costco gift card, etc). I've gone on some trips where the flight + hotel package through Costco was cheaper than just booking the hotel by itself (essentially getting a free flight).
- Where I live in California at least, Costco Gas is often at least $0.40/gallon cheaper than nearby gas stations.
I’ve no knowledge of US stores and all that, but as a general rule, I’d be extremely suspicious of anyone offering so much cheaper gas as a rule. Also, free flights? There’s something rotten almost always, when the deals sound almost too good. There are no free lunches (in capitalist societies at least).
They have membership fees (like someone else said), and also have lower margins than other stores. I think their margin per item is around 14-15%, compared to supermarkets which are over 20%.
You pay a membership to shop there. This subsidizes many things.
Does anyone know if there's a monkey paw angle on this, or genuine win for the workers?
A week ago their union announced 80% support amongst their union workers for increased pay and they threatened to strike starting jan 31st if wages weren't increased. I forget exact numbers but last year they still made like 7 billion in income (200billion revenue) so they could afford to give their employees raises.
Don't get me wrong, Costco is cool and nice, but this is why unions are good
Costco has always invested heavily in thier workers. I love the place. Even the people selling the hotdogs are making a livable wage, and you can tell by how everyone in that store is helpful and nice.
Sam's club is the evil twin owned by Walmart. I go waaay out of my way to pass a Sam's club and shop at Costco.
Costco has always invested heavily in thier workers.
Because of the unions, not because of the good will of the corporation...
Sure, but there was a reason that strike was threatened and unions said that Costco had been intentionally slow walking at every turn. Even waiting until the last second here was likely calculated and considered down to the dollar versus lost sentiment in public perception and PR spend to attempt to recover image. Very cynical, but happy if it ultimately worked out. If...
Meanwhile Costco in Australia is pushing to have penalty rates abolished. They might be good by American standards but they can get fucked trying to erode Australian workers rights.
What's a "penalty rates"?
Had to look it up myself, it's their name for what Americans call "overtime"
like if you work over 40 hours in a week, any hours you work over 40 are paid out at 150% of your normal rate, some places do 200% for Sunday or holidays.
Found this article from a couple days ago.
https://www.actu.org.au/media-release/1-million-australian-workers-at-risk-of-penalty-rate-cuts-while-bossesare-promised-free-lunches/
Overtime is a type of penalty rate, these are the others:
- weekends
- public holidays
- overtime
- late nights shifts or
- early morning shifts.
There's penalty to the employer for asking to work these times, in the form of more money. As it should be
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Well, at least when my disabled ass loses my "welfare" (federally directed VA disability payments), I'll have a soul crushing retail job to hope for
Worked at Costco for 2 years. Most of the employees love their jobs. I wanted more and move on, but kid you not, there are people still working at my old warehouse that started the same day I did 20 years ago. Wages were good, the benefits were great, and everyone respected each other.
How physically demanding is it?
Depends everyone starts pushing carts or in the foodcourt. Those are your two choices.
Food court is a trap and if you start there you will be unable to leave. This is where most of the turnover happens. You become good and no one wants to let you out to the floor or cash register. I had supervisors that worked the foodcourt for 8 years threaten to quit unless they could get on the floor. Even then theyd drag him back on short staff days until he said hed quit the next time the ask him to cover the court.This is where I started because it was a 100 degree summer and I didn't want to push carts. Air conditioning is nice. Very little in the way of physical lifting but it's fast paced and you move around a lot. I did hurt my back moving pizza trays but that was my own fault trying to lift and turn with 75 pounds.
Pushing carts. Initially a lot of physical work but you build strength and stamina fast. Push carts for 3 months and you'll be on the floor or register. So if you want to progress to supervisor/manager/corporate role you should really start in carts if you have any sort of physical capacity.
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Here's to less soulcrushing work and more fascistcrushing work!
I hear fascist crushers are understaffed
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Interesting to see how valuable employees are isn't it
Most importantly... if you ask the conservatives, if you pay your workers a living wage, you fail capitalism your stock prices are doomed
https://www.financecharts.com/compare/COST,WMT
Yet unless I'm an idiot, when I put the chart out to 10 years... I see costco's stock price leaping... and walmarts price pretty damn flat.
It looks that way because Costco’s stock per unit is around 10x of that of Walmart.* Costco did grow more in five years. 220% vs 150% of Walmart.
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/COST/
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/WMT/
*There are many mode units of Walmart stock so the company is worth more in total. But you’d be better of buying COST five years ago. For the soul and wallet 😄)
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Costco has figured out that paying their employees well and treating them well is good for business and have decided that good business is more important that the feeling of satisfaction that most CEOs get from treating their employees like serfs. Their industrial investors have figured out that diverse companies with diverse management perform better than companies run by white, rich men that employ only white men and voted down a christofascist virtue signalling attempt to overturn their DEI programs.
If Costco believed that a move such as the one in the headline was a common sense, good for business strategy, then why did they draw it out over months and months of grueling union negotiations, probably spending untold millions on lawyers?
The union strong armed Costco into making this decision - as they should.
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OMG, this is so DEI/woke! I hope donvict will lean on these guys and make them stop this terrible stuff.
Ok fine, maybe now I'll consider getting a membership. But I still don't have room for bulk items.
They sell 36x18x60 shelves for $30. Just started going last week and it was the first thing I looked for
Look at this guy who doesn’t live in a 400sqft apartment with only street parking.
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I have a feeling this is some anti union move, given it's happening during negotiations with the Teamsters. Perhaps it's a smaller increase than what the union members want, meant to weaken their resolve?
If you read the actual article, there are two things that stand out:
The changes apply to employees at non-union locations.
and
Other benefits for non-union workers include an additional week of vacation after 30 years of employment and vacation for new employees during their first year.
So from my understanding you may very well be correct, instead of trying to block unions through negative reinforcement, they try to block them by rewarding you for not joining one.
Costco is one of the most pro worker employers in the US
Edit: every workplace should still be unionized
Until they're not.
Everything is cool right now for them because they got good management. But at some point, some MBA grad gets elected to lead and drain Costco out of all good will.
Same with Steam.
Yeah I'm scared of what will happen to steam when Gabe retires. I hope he's hand picked a really solid successor
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Right now... it's "one of the most pro worker employers in the US" right now.
If they have no problem with being such, then they shouldn't mind a few collectively bargained contacts which ensure they stay that way.
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anti union move
Bold move, increasing employee salaries to fight unions!
Not sure if this is sarcasm or not so I'm gonna say it - yes offering higher wages to obsolete a union is literally a strategy to get rid of the union. It's just the least reprehensible strategy. Once the union's gone, the pay increases can get less steep or disappear altogether. If there's nothing for workers to hold over the firm's head and the labor market in their sector isn't tight (it isn't) then the firm sets the wages.
If I've learned anything about corporations over the last few years it's that nothing stops them from seeking profit growth and the long term trend is that anything is fair game, even previously great employee compensation. There might be people in Costco's exec/shareholder layer who are ideologically driven to pay workers well. They aren't going to stay there forever. If you want to glean at how things are likely to change, just look at how most other firms are operated. Chances are the next exec layer would come from there.
Yeah, was gonna say, this is 100% Anti-Union Tactics 101. Literally get warned about this kind of stuff while organizing and there's a history of it dating back to the beginnings of labor organizing.
The trap is laid out thusly: promise unionizing workers a pay rise without a collective bargaining contact. The workers reject unionization because the wages are "fair." A year to two years later, after all talk of unionization has died down and they've had a chance to fire or layoff the organizers, the company will then walk back all wage hikes citing "needed" cost cutting measures and the workers get screwed.
Remember folks, you have a right to collectively bargain and unionize (at least right now; who knows what Trump and this SCOTUS might do over the next four years)... without a legally binding labor contract, every benefit and every red cent of your pay is at the whim of the company (and lobbyist addicted politicians). Companies only have one directive: profit. They'll do anything (including taking a wash on twelve to eighteen months of wage hikes) to ensure profits. Do not ever forget that united we bargain, divided we beg.
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