Costco bosses basked in praise for making union-friendly statements but have yet to commit to bargain in good faith.
Last December, a group of 238 Costco workers in Norfolk, Virginia, voted to unionize and join Teamsters Local 822. The local declared the vote “the union’s first organizing victory at the wholesale retailer in two decades.” The voices of the pro-union workers who won this contested election — the vote was 111-92 — were quickly overshadowed, however, by a letter from Costco’s leadership that garnered much attention beyond the shop floor.
Outgoing Chief Executive Officer Craig Jelinek and incoming CEO President Ron Vachris stated in a letter addressed to all Costco employees, that “we’re disappointed by the result” of the union election. But, they added, “We’re not disappointed in our employees; we’re disappointed in ourselves as managers and leaders.” In their view, the employees voted for a union because management failed to satisfy its “core value of ‘taking care of our employees.’”
For an HR letter, it went viral. Much praise was lavished onto Jelinek and Vachris for their “graceful” and “classy” response. CNN described the letter as “surprising” and in “stark contrast” to “other companies, such as Starbucks, [which] have pushed back hard against union organizing.” Others praised Costco’s “emotional intelligence” and ability to look “inward.”
During the early 1990s, Costco competed with Price Club, another retailer that already had unionized workers. When Costco merged with Price Club in 1993, many of the union warehouses (mostly located in California) remained union. In the early to mid-2000s, the Teamsters expanded the number of union warehouses with some successful campaigns in New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Virginia. But it was always a challenge.
Well generally it seems like a good place to work, it's not like Amazon Warehouses. Typically I'm pro union, but I don't see if Costco is that bad.
I think I'm going to go more off what the actual employees say than some random on the internet.
I worked there for 2 years and honestly can't understand the need to unionize. Pay was as good as it could get for work that didn't require a degree. Benefits were good. They next to never hire externally for skilled or even anyone above cart pusher. Literally everyone starts out pushing carts before you can apply for corporate roles except for extremely technical positions and they've exhausted all internal options. Only thing that sucks is if you accidentally get stuck working the food court like I did. It's very hard to escape that position since it's not well regarded. I finally quit after 2 years and being unable to transition and that's not uncommon for others. Soooo generally, I can't see the need to unionize at costco as they treat everyone really well and the pay is good.
My homie works at Costco and makes more than half my friends with degrees - loves his coworkers and gets paid much better than when I worked grocery.
I think they're good with raises, too.
They're solid with raises on schedule. I went 3 years without a riase in corporate America.