Costco workers in Norfolk, Virginia, recently unionized, defying the company’s reputation as one that cares about workers. In an interview, a Costco worker says he and his coworkers are tired of being treated with disrespect on the job.
Costco’s executives are eyeballing the number 18,238 and plastering letters of contrition in break rooms after workers at the wholesale retail chain’s Norfolk, Virginia, store voted to join Teamsters Local 822 in late December.
“We’re not disappointed in our employees; we’re disappointed in ourselves as managers and leaders,” wrote outgoing CEO Craig Jelinek and then president and now CEO Ron Vachris in a memo on December 29. “The fact that a majority of Norfolk employees felt that they wanted or needed a union constitutes a failure on our part.”
This pattern — contrition, apology, vows to do better — is nothing new in the union-busting playbook. But Costco was supposedly one of the good, high-road employers with an enlightened management that put workers first and invested in them. That’s why it was credited with one of the highest retention rates in the industry.
read more: https://portside.org/2024-01-22/unionization-wave-hitting-costco
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Good for them, sounds like they approached it constructively and it’s helping.
I’ve been extremely impressed with Costco as a customer and it was great reading how they responded to it, with self awareness and self criticism.
I mean good for them, but I would have thought Unions would be appearing in more difficult and exploitative companies. Places like Amazon and all of Starbucks and so so so many others way before Costco which has had one of the best reputations for decades on how they treat their employees.
They are way better at union busting there.
FERNANDO PÉREZ When we first started talking to people, when there was a scared employee, I would tell them, “Look, I’m still here. They know I’m a part of it, and I’m still here. Fill out the card, get more information, give the Teamsters a call.”
Pretty sure Amazon promptly fires anyone believed to be trying to organize.
I think that’s part of why they have such insane metrics that employees are supposed to meet: so they can fire anyone “for cause” whenever they want because almost no one actually meets the metrics.
With a high degree of certainty, I believe you are spot on.
“We’re not disappointed in our employees; we’re disappointed in ourselves as managers and leaders,” “The fact that a majority of Norfolk employees felt that they wanted or needed a union constitutes a failure on our part.”
While this is certainly a better response than the typical overtly anti union stuff, it still betrays a misunderstanding of the necessity of a union. Workers need and deserve fair representation whether their employer is abusing them or not.
exactly, sad to admit it got past my conscious
I feel like the CDS folks (the people giving away food samples) need to unionize. The fact that they’re working at Costco but not working directly for Costco sets off my exploitation spidey-sense.
Did anyone else know they didn’t work for Costco?
I don’t think this one is a red flag in itself. There are tons of people that go to places to work at, but not for. Specifically retail, there’s infrastructure, IT, vendors, security, merchandisers, people doing inventory, etc. Of course stores could hire people to do these things, but they could also be employed by another company that specializes in that thing.
With that said, they’re workers. Of course they’re being exploited…
I think all your other examples are red flags, too.
They don’t mean failure to meet employee standards or wishes…they mean failure to manipulate their employees into not joining a union
I’ve always heard pretty good things about working at Costco. As long as I can remember they’ve always paid their employees more and had better benefits that other large retailers. I doubt a lot of other costcos will go union.
These workers don’t realize they are shooting themselves in the foot.
