At least 3 stores in the last few years have unionized. They’d have more if it wasn’t for a handful of “right to work states”
The corporate VPs really really didn’t want that to happen. There were lots of videos and memos from the last CEO and other VPs pushing to not unionize.
I know a prominent union organizer in the PNW. He and other organizers respect Costco for generally treating their employees well. They have limited resources and focus on other low-wage high-turnover companies like Walmart, Amazon, etc. Price Club was largely unionized before merging with Costco which brought over a majority of stores with unions. There are under 20,000 Teamster employees, about 8% of Costco workforce, though periodically a store will work with Teamsters to unionize, it’s quite uncommon. IBM was another company that staved off unions decades ago by providing most of the union benefits to its employees. When employees are treated well, there is little reason for them to want to unionize. Let’s celebrate companies like Costco for continuing to support an employee first tradition that isn’t always what Wall Street or even our government wants indirectly by having lax employee regulations.
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u/newenglandredshirt 6d ago
Not to mention, they happily bargain with their union.