Imagine this: 18, 000 workers at Costco across the USA. Many of them were very ready to start a strike. They had voted and it was clear that most of them wanted to do it. The reason? They were fed up with wages and benefits that weren't matching up to what Costco was earning.  A whopping $7. 4bn profit made in the year before.  Of course, the union stepped up for the workers. They demanded better wages, and  more benefits. They wanted a deal that matched the success Costco had achieved.  All of this came right down to the wire in Jan, the deadline for a strike.

    A strike would have started at midnight, but it didn't. The Teamsters union and Costco managed to reach a deal, a tentative agreement. The exact details weren't made public, but for now, it's worth celebrating that workers can keep doing their jobs.

    Union members had been saying that the company's profits were soaring, So why not give workers a share of that success? The Teamsters had been vocal about this. The shareholders had been asked a lot of questions, but some of which were left Unanswered.

    Ahead of the strike, Costco had announced pay increases for some of its employees. They promised that most would be earning over $30 an hour by 2024. This could have been a way to avoid a strike. But worker expectations had already been raised.  The Teamsters had accused the company of trying to underpay workers while giving huge salaries to top executives. The CEO of Costco made a staggering $12m in 2024.  Some workers had called this “outrageous”.  This was an example of how Costco was behaving.  The company had defended its DEI policies, standing by their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. This continued to be a thorny issue.

    The Teamsters union had been very vocal in the past. They had rallied outside Costco's headquarters during the company's annual shareholder meeting. They had submitted questions about pay increases and benefits. But the response was slow.

    While some companies were rolling back their diversity and inclusion policies, Costco were staying strong, but that didn't stop many state attorney generals from threatening the company.

    The Teamsters had done their homework. They had rallied workers, and they had put their demands on the table. In the end, though, a deal was reached.

    There are many lessons to learn here, and questions to be asked. It all comes down to asking what is being done for the workers in the trenches, the ones who make the business happen.

Bargain at Costco: Unions and Workers Avoid Strike.

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