Unions and striking work folks
The workers didn’t need to strike. Costco is notoriously an amazing employer to work for. They have some of the lowest turnover in the industry. The CEO often gets grilled in earnings calls on things like employee costs and he always rebuts that happy employees are productive. I am very pro unions but this is one of those examples of a good employer.
Thats a bit disingenuous. The workers DID have to threaten to strike. This raise didnt just come out of the blue as a benevolent gesture.
But this is how give and take should work with employers.
I hadn’t heard that but with more research, you are correct: they had to threaten a strike. I am disappointed to hear that.
I’m not that disappointed, its the reality of the system we have. Even senior management have to protect their jobs. They resisted just enough to be able to sell to the shareholders “Did you want a strike? Did you want workers picketing? You want those optics?”
The system we have sucks, thats undeniable. But this is just the process.
Yup, exactly. C-level is beholden to shareholders, who would pay minimum wage if given the option. Management held out just long enough for the union to start threatening a strike, when then gave justification for the increase. It’s a big dog and pony show, and every person played their part to keep the shareholders placated.
https://apnews.com/article/costco-teamsters-union-strike-ce27314fa42af3e7ffff236867ec4cff
Union organizing has ticked up but overall membership is still falling.
Costco only recently has had to deal with string of labor actions
Amazing how the one company that was a joke in the movie Idiocracy is actually the one company saving us from a complete fascist takeover.
Costco is looking at the enormous shortfall in human labor, flipping open its Econ 101 textbook, and deciding “High demand? Low supply? Price must go up.”
That’s not “fighting fascism” just running a business intelligently. I’ve heard similar stories from HEB, from my local auto repair guy, and from a few neighboring restaurants. Businesses are struggling to keep staffed so income pressure is rising.
Their very public decision to keep DEI in addition to a long history of not exploiting their employees has led me to purchase a membership this morning. I’m okay with financually rewarding reasonable behavior.
My least favorite thing about capitalism is that if everyone did it correctly, and worked together to maximize each other’s value, it wouldn’t even be that bad. Being a middle class wage worker wouldn’t be too bad if my management cared about increasing the value they can extract from me by enriching and teaching me instead of being slave drivers
I saw Costco raise membership fees, reduce people entering without a membership, and wondered if it was just profiteering without improving pricing. While their max profit is set to 14% which at least seems better than the price gouging under the label of inflation, I hope this is part of that improvements for society. It may not calculate out properly, but hopefully it does. For a lot of people, the 🌭 and 🍕 is also a great help too. They also stood up for DEIA and humanity, avoiding the falsehoods of fascism and scapegoating of the people systemically vulnerable and a real path to equity for all.
Credible strike threat gets the goods
Bro what I don’t even make that as a programmer
What? Why?
He’s gotta be either entry level or part time… Or getting really ripped off