Dive Brief:
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Costco Teamsters voted by an 85% margin to authorize a strike, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said on Monday. Costco didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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A master agreement that covers more than 18,000 Costco workers expires Jan. 31 and workers are prepared to strike the following day, according to a union press release.
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Last week hundreds of Costco Teamsters in California, Washington and New York held practice pickets to prepare for a potential strike, the union said.
Dive Insight:
About a year ago when its Norfolk, Virginia, store voted to join the Teamsters, Costco’s leadership — its incoming and outgoing chief executives — accepted responsibility and said the vote reflected a failure on their part.
“At Costco, we take great pride in our relationships with each other. We’re not anti-union, but our core value of ‘taking care of our employees’ has never been the result of any union,” then-outgoing CEO Craig Jelinek and incoming CEO Ron Vachris wrote in a letter to their U.S. employees, which was posted on social media.
Costco, which offers some of the best pay and benefits in the retail industry, enjoys a reputation as a good place to work. Tom Erickson, director of the Teamsters Warehouse Division, addressed that in a statement regarding the impending strike.
"This strike vote is a direct response to Costco's greed and blatant disregard for the bargaining process," Erickson said. "Costco claims to treat workers better than the competition, but right now, it's failing to live up to that reputation. Management has less than two weeks to fix this — if they don't, they'll face the consequences."
The Teamsters characterized the membership-based warehouse retailer’s financial performance as “record-breaking profits.” The company last month said that its most recent quarter was its best since 2023. In the period, global net sales rose 7.5% year over year to $61 billion, with U.S. comps excluding fuel up more than 7% and net income up more than 13% to $1.8 billion.
In a statement, Teamsters General President Sean O'Brien called for “a historic, industry-leading agreement.”
"Our members have spoken loud and clear — Costco must deliver a fair contract, or they'll be held accountable," he said. “Costco's greedy executives have less than two weeks to do the right thing. If they refuse, they'll have no one to blame but themselves when our members go on strike."
Costco recently pushed back against a shareholder demand to dismantle its diversity goals in a response that was notable for its forcefulness, observers said. In the past, the company has similarly defended its relatively higher compensation packages as ultimately good for business.
