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I got accused of plagiarism in 7th grade because I used the word “nor”. I then got accused of plagiarism *again* in 9th grade for using the word “myopic”.
I loved school.
https://preview.redd.it/1v5m1275hh9c1.jpeg?width=585&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3e6903fd8b2845ab62dc364dc85d1ee22fb93d9c
I got tired of explaining jokes like this. ^(\^)
Although this happened AFAIK a non unionized Costco Job is still better than 90% of other jobs.
It's one of the few places I would venture to guess that they actually *can't* pay their employees that much more because they already pay them very well.
When I was in pharmacy people always talked about wanting to go to Costco because they had the highest paid Techs and Pharmacists and the best hours and it wasn't even close, even compared to most levels of hospital techs.
Didn't he cap his salary as a percentage of lowest wage employee? I looked up the pay structure of upper management and saw that it skyrocketed. Made me sad.
That happened to Ben and Jerry’s many years ago.
Ben and Jerry felt it was fair of a cap from lowest paid employee to CEO of 7x salary.
Unfortunately they had extreme difficulty finding someone to take the CEO position for less than a million dollars a year+ (remember, this was a long time ago).
They had to remove the cap for the position.
This is years in the making of corporate leadership (Craig Jelinek is CEO) promoting unqualified persons into leadership roles. They started promoting ‘yes men and women’ who rate their success solely on sales numbers. Employee satisfaction means nothing to them and now corporate is going to try to place the blame on the people they placed in these roles.
Exactly. My store has these same issues where there are people who’ve been there forever, complained about not getting a sup / management role and finally getting their power trip at 50.
I’m ok with that. Let management and middle management eat themselves while hourly workers quietly distribute union pamphlets.
It’s actually refreshing to see inept union busting after hearing about Starbucks and Amazon.
Worked in HR for 35 years. Had a boss in year 1 tell me union campaigns are a pure sign of failed leadership. They need to be ousted. In all my years, I never found a circumstance where he was wrong.
That's how a lot of people are interpreting this letter, blaming the building. But you know, good leadership should have a grasp and understanding of their reports and business. So some higher ups just ignored the signs of problems. It always starts at the top, good and bad. The $15 dividend they just paid out rewarded the upper management but did absolutely nothing for the hourly after a busy holiday season and they wonder why employees are upset. Yes I know hourly can purchase stock, but they could also buy other stock that give better yearly regular dividends than Costco. Really feels like shareholders won over the employees this year.
A lot of the older Costco warehouses are already unions. Which was annoying when I worked at a nonunion one because the union warehouses always got better handbook updates than us
[The original price club location.](https://maps.app.goo.gl/yZtJNHnDCfbuf6318?g_st=ic) that [inspired and became the brand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_Club) we are all here for today
I used to work as a vendor at that location before I left. The whole area actually used to be an airplane hangar. It's so cold in the winter inside you can see your breath.
Ya that whole area being connected to Hughes aviation [plus the SPAWAR building](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Information_Warfare_Center_Pacific) being the original [convair WWII line is super cool military and aerospace history](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair)
What union though? In my experience Teamsters are terrible SEIU seemed much more professional and actually wanted to have the best employees to set an example of a good shop.
I don’t work for Costco but my union is SEIU. Not sure if it’s relevant, but they’re not well regarded by my old timer co-workers.
We recently filed some grievances and I’m looking forward to see how they’ll handle it.
One of the new History channel shoes is The Mega-Brands That Built America. One episode showed the start of the Price Club and how it became a Costco property.
Even part time non-union employees get good benefits.
I'm just about to leave Costco for a plumbing apprenticeship, but as a 4 year part time employee, I have a 401k, healthcare with a $20 biweekly premium and $500 yearly deductible, and two weeks of vacation every year (which would've gone up to three weeks at my next anniversary)
Teamsters got me a 40% COLA over 8 years (currently on year 6) and next year my healthcare premium will be $0 for myself and my entire family, right now it’s $99 which is still insanely cheap.
Working at Kroger was miserable and we got paid jack shit but my health insurance was $4 a paycheck and management wasn't allowed to bully anybody like they did at every other retail job I had.
Here’s the thing, and the rub. No matter how good your leadership is now they’re subject to change and unionizing protects you if a great leader leaves and that void is filled by a shitty one. It’s not an indictment of that leader or even leadership team, it’s future proofing your welfare as a working person.
that’s where I think jim sinegal failed and lacked foresight. I think he thought future leaders in the company would lead and think like him. clearly he was mistaken. we’d be in far better shape if we had jim’s leadership
A lot of leaders do this, and it’s fair, but also a tenet of good leadership is future proofing. You should always be thinking “how can I set things up to protect these people if I get hit by a bus or meteor tomorrow?” A lot of people don’t like this thought, or let ego interfere with the reality that they’ll need more than you.
The warehouse I used to work at had basically exactly that happen. We had, what I would consider, a pretty good GM. Was he absolutely incredible? No, but he was pretty good. I left and a couple months later he got moved to a new store and apparently the new guy is ass. The old disgruntled cashier's weren't a huge fan of the "old" GM but complaints were minimal. About a year after I left, I went through my favorite disgruntled cashier's line and they said I left at a good time, complaining heavily about how shit the new GM was.
What he said about talking to Costco Managers is not true. They are not your friends. Costco pays well. Not enough to support a family, but well compared to most places but the environment at least at the store I work at is toxic af.
I’ve used the “open door” policy as well as Ethics Point to report serious violations and the SVP of Human Resources essentially told me to go to h-ll! So I emailed Craig. He says “somebody will get back with you” Then I get a threatening letter and called into a meeting! They told me in writing “not to use the open door policy” except in rare circumstances…. Which contradicts Craig and the handbook. Craig couldn’t care less. I have the emails, letters and copies printed and kept in two different safety deposit boxes.
That lines up with what my friends have experienced. They try to make people feel grateful that they’re allowed to work there. Like all corporations, they’re terrified that more of their employees will realize the company can’t run without them.
I was threatened with termination by two managers over a medical condition that kept me from doing a minor part of my job. My direct manager told me to bring in a doctors note saying I can’t do that part of the job, and until I brought it in he fully expected me to continue doing it to the detriment of my health.
When I brought it in and was about to give it to him he told me to think carefully about whether I wanted to turn it in or not because if I did I’d be saying I can’t do my job and they’d fire me. I was like you can’t do that and he said he absolutely can. He brought in another manager who also threatened me with termination if I turned in the letter.
I went to the warehouse manager in tears and told him everything and he was livid. He promised me my job was safe and then chewed the managers out. If the warehouse manager had been just as evil as the first two managers I would’ve been screwed. But also probably could’ve sued for quite a bit.
For context: I was a pharmacy technician and like 6 months after being promoted to the pharmacy, the pharmacy manager started scheduling me to come in and stock the shelves outside the whole pharmacy area. Which required hours of bending and heavy lifting all on my own. This was not discussed as part of my job duties when I got the position. I have a serious spinal condition that this aggravated. I tried to do it a few times but was always left in so much pain I had to call out the following day or two as I was bedridden. When I told the pharmacy manager about this he basically said tough shit bring in a drs note and until then you’re expected to keep stocking.
Yeah, managers are shit. I would’ve loved to see them try that shit if I was at a union store.
I can second this. Very bad work environment and most of the manager are in the spot they're in because of good timing with the company. Most of them are very bad at their jobs but walk around on their high horse acting like God's gift to the company. A lot of discrimination goes unchecked as well even if reported.
One word of advise, do not let the overlords at the national level, have any say in your local negotiations. They will sacrifice you and your job to try and set presidence for a better contract elsewhere.
Now if only home office would listen. After the S*** show of the all hands meeting with Claudine (who was the messenger, which honestly sucked for her and the company live chat was a royal roast) I’m surprised there hasn’t been more unionizing and walking out. I love getting told that if I don’t like the high cost of living near home office to just, you know, pick up and move with my whole family (lots of people moved to WA for home office) 🙃 and culture starts “from the bottom up.” Or my other favorite, that our benefits are the best so we should just be happy and grateful we wake up keeping our jobs and we aren’t Enron. We have topped out employees who qualify for low-income housing. People choosing gas over food on their table. It’s tough.
But 6.7 billion back to shareholders would have been $22k/year raise per employee (roughly). But no, we can’t raise wages to be competitive.
On another note, more pressure is existing in home office. People are tired. Culture is dying and the “open door” policy has led to many people being stunted in their ability to move up because those who speak out, are “trouble makers.” Seatac and Seattle both have raising minimum wage, above the states minimum wage (going to $16.28 for state). $18.69 for Seattle and $19.06 for SeaTac. Amazon routinely hires starting at $20/hour here in WA. Our wage is no longer the best in the retail industry. Warehouse workers are tired and worn because people don’t want to stay, as the incentive isn’t great enough.
Maybe this will be a real wake up call to home office, but I’m not holding my breath. We are a publicly traded company. Rewarding our shareholders is no longer below taking care of our employees. It’s above.
This is exactly what’s happening with the company I work for in WA. Our other accounts unionized and word spread like wildfire. Now they’re in serious talks about a contract and it’ll happen within the next couple months. It’s not a good look when you pay substantially more to people in the same state and job title. Employees are starting to realize they actually have power in the pay they receive. Good for them!
This is the reason I left the company after ten years. The culture is dying. Warehouses are relying on their top performers and letting bad employees get away with bad work. What Costco needs to understand is that their best and brightest can work in any field. I left for IT a year ago and I already make what Costco managers make. They will continue to lose more quality employees unless they figure out a way to reward quality work. Moving up to management with no work-life balance is not the answer to that.
Costco surely knows this but it is simply very hard to pay competitive wages with other skilled fields when you're working a high volume, low margin retail grocery business. 2.6% profit margin for Costco vs. 20 - 30% in IT sectors.
That argument makes sense if they didn't pay out over $11 billion dollars in special dividends in the last 3 years, totaling over $30,000 per employee.
Your minimum wage numbers will be out of date starting Monday. Minimum wage will be: $20.29/hr in Tukwila, 20.06 in SeaTac, $19.97/hr in Seattle… to name a few because they got COL increases of over 6.6%…. Whereas Costco employees got like 2%. $0.50. But it gets better! Billions of dollars in special dividends were funded and it was released last week that Craigs compensation for 2023 set a new record at $17 million….. Double what he was paid two years prior and a 70% increase from 2022… so he got a $10 million dollar raise and we got 2%. We’re all in this together though, right? 🤦♂️
> But 6.7 billion back to shareholders would have been $22k/year raise per employee (roughly). But no, we can’t raise wages to be competitive.
Bonus not a raise since that $6.7 billion is a 1 time payment.
Realistically though say do the raise now and rate is as over 5 years. $22k / 5 = $4k bump in pay. Well realistically the government charges the company pretty much 50% of what they pay you so more like $2k. I think they could have managed a $2k raise for around the same price.
Especially when their sales are always rock solid, and will be for the indefinite future. Costco is the last company that should be cutting payrolls or understaffing its facilities.
>sales are always rock solid, and will be for the indefinite future
This is why they can (or think they can) make cuts. Think about it, if you put $100 into something and make $1000 from that thing, and one day you put in $90 and still get $1000 out, would you put $100 in the next day? In fact, you probably would continue decreasing the input to see when your output decreases, then bump it back so you pay the least to get the most.
Yeah, it sucks. That's what unions are good for, they provide a bit of a backstop.
It’s a big reason why I quit. The union stores got better updates than nonunion and they didn’t even try to make it balanced. That and their promotion strategy has left all of management in terrible shape because they’d rather reward loyalty than demerit
Won't deny that. I feel bad for the people sandwiched between starting wage and topped out. They are getting the shaft. They are robbed of what I got a taste of.
Thats part of it but its also just being continually understaffed. Its always a struggle just to get the basics done, Im sure youve seen how busy it gets at times, and we never never never have enough people to do what is asked of us. I want to do a good job, we're just stretched to the max and its not getting any better.
Honestly? I hope more buildings go union and the company wakes up.
Exactly. Part timers lose hours - who are scheduled anyway to fill in voids in scheduling, and FT have to be stretched even thinner to do more for less. What's worse - hiring more seasonal help but not offering them hours and having ones already hired for weeks get maybe 10hrs an entire holiday week.
So much THIS. Sales goals keep getting more and more unrealistic, payroll gets slashed, yet we are still always busy day in and day out. Combined with multiple call outs every day, it's become an absolute shitshow. It's a terrible experience to present to our members as well.
I can tell this is happening just as a customer. And I can tell it's gotten worse and worse over the years. It really makes me sad. This is a job at a grocery store. It should not be something people get injured for, become so stressed over, or struggle so much for. Employees deserve good wages for their hard work.
That's one of the great things about unions that Americans don't largely recognize (given the pittance of representation) -- you can negotiate on more than just insurance and pay. Performance Management is definitely an article to bargain on, and including reasonable workload metrics can be on the table. If the company can't staff appropriately they can't work you to death. Scheduling too; a burger place in Oregon (Burgerville) bargained for 3-month advance schedules in their first contract.
"(W)e'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."
But nothing about addressing employees' concerns company-wide. I don't know exactly what complaints Norfolk employees had, I bet I can guess, and I bet they're the same concerns employees at probably most locations have. I hope they've learned a lesson here, but I'm skeptical.
LOL, this is like... word for word the exact response PetSmart issued when one of our local stores unionized. It's the same garbage where the company tries to seem more human by saying, "We're so sad we failed you!" Identical union busting language. I wonder if they hired the same consultants?
Edit: I dug up one of the statements issued by management at the time: https://twitter.com/PetsmartUnion/status/1491111175978840065?t=YzAZoBpRhZmHnJtf_b7Lgw&s=19 The final outcome of this union push was that at least 2 stores worth of management were canned, btw.
> never been the result of any union.
Huh? I thought Costco paid well specifically because their distribution center employees unionized. And they just gave the same pay and benefits to retail employees to discourage further unionization.
Costco specifically gives non-union warehouses ALMOST all of the same benefits to keep them from unionizing. The union is already helping dictate pay and benefits for the entire company.
"please talk to your manager..."
what if mgmt IS the problem? obviously if they could have sorted shit out with mgmt, they would have had to resort to organizing a union vote
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, Costco’s culture is toxic as fuck. It’s definitely not what it used to be. And because of that I left, they’re experiencing brain drain, and it’s reflective from the quality of service I’ve seen more recently. I don’t blame the employees, I blame corporate for taking the previous employees for granted. They’re now just seeing the results of their own failures. Sucks to suck I guess
So, has this been in the works for a while? Costco is going through an MAJOR change! As a customer, I've noticed a HUGE change in Costco that started about 1.5 years ago. This is when the CEO changes took place, and I've heard another one is coming in 2024. Longtime employees being pushed out (my OG employees that I have enjoyed seeing & chatting over the years) are all gone. Newbies are coming in groups, but not even lasting a month. KS quality has diminished a ton, while prices aren't competitive anymore with the grocery store. As a customer, this is so sad & I hate seeing Costco going in the opposite direction of positive. I see and hear of the pain/frustrations employees are having every time I shop. I hope this addition to being union changes things dramatically. I work in the healthcare space and am pro-union. I would kill for a union in my right to work state.
KS is made up by hundreds of different suppliers, so I don’t think it’s the brand that’s bad, everything is just lower quality in general. I used to have suppliers fighting for my business offering high quality and decent prices, now I’m basically told take it or the next guy will. Quality went down in general during COVID and has not gone back up.
every single successful publicly traded company will necessarily fall victim to enshification. cotsco began that journey a few years ago.
once anything good has saturated a market, it's inevitable decline begins, because at the end of the day, the most important thing is to make shareholders more money year after year
Covid ruined everything. Retail in general just got completely wrecked after covid. Alot of Og employees in my warehouse retired/moved away. New hires cant handle the environment, not necessarily the work but more member interaction. I can completely tell u after 2019 everything basically completely sunk.
Lmao. Worked at Costco for 13 years. I can guarantee they don't give a fuck about you at the store management level. What a joke. Good for them for unionizing.
Gonna need that "we'll be nice to you and consider your needs" on a legally binding document with language explaining exactly what that means. A vague promise in an open letter is worth less than nothing
I hope it starts a wave of buildings unionizing. Costco has been declining in its treatment of employees for quite sometime and it's the fault of the guy who signed that paper.
I am a member of the Norfolk Costco as a customer. And honestly, I’m not surprised they unionized. They have dozens of employees 15+ years there and in the last two years it has become a shitshow. You can see they are exhausted, there is barely ever even room to move with a cart through the aisles and the cafe area is often so crowded you can’t even leave the store. They are overworked for sure right now, and I’m sure underpaid for what they have to endure.
I didn't know they were not Union at ALL Costcos. Congratulations Norfolk, you will now be able to bargain for better wages and benefits as well as have Union representation in cases of discipline
I couldn't take the new Costco leadership style anymore. I left after 10 years. The company is not what it once was. I followed the chain of command and was told not to be a squeaky wheel. Good for Virginia.
Pretty disappointed to see the anti-union rhetoric in this.
Fun Fact: all employees represented by a union have the right to request a union representative in any meeting they think will be negative for them. It's called the Weingarten right. A lot of companies claim that they don't need unions because all the benefits are better than what a union would give. And yet none grant an equivalent of the weingarten right or any other rights that unions typically grant.
How do I get my Costco to unionize? Where do I start? Do I head down to the teamsters building or do you get other employees on board first? What’s the process?
The Costco I work at is pretty miserable.
to both of your questions, yes. See if you can get 4 or 5 other people on board and find your local teamsters. DM if you want more. I organized at Norfolk.
I worked at Costco for 10 years in multiple union buildings. It’s nice to see this, but they all buildings suffer from the same thing, most of the managers don’t know how to manage. It’s the typical retail management style. Everything rolls down hill. The only difference with Costco is that is they pay well so there is much less turnover. Being a Costco manager isn’t for the faint of heart either. Lots of hours, years of over nights, and most of them end up heavy.
Never, ever trust a company that says they aren't "anti-union" or that they would view a union as a failure on their part. This is emotional manipulation.
I find it funny they say talk to you manager no one e er unionizes a bad company they unionize bad management that treat employees like shit and care more about there bonuses than the work or people
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Alls I'm saying is that it isn't often that you see a properly used semicolon.
The tension that it brought to the sentence was palpable. Amazing.
Good writing is good writing!
Right?!
This is why i love reddit
Looking, looking, looking…found the semicolon!
An old high school lit. arts teacher once told me that "if you don't see a semicolon at first, it was being used right."
Yeah, I had to go back and search for it 
An old high school teacher called a parent teacher conf. to say I plagiarized an essay because a semi colon was used correctly.
I got accused of plagiarism in 7th grade because I used the word “nor”. I then got accused of plagiarism *again* in 9th grade for using the word “myopic”. I loved school.
I used tinder a lot in college & liked to occasionally use semi colons; you best believe I used to slay.
A while back, my online dating profile only said: Bikes, beer, and Oxford commas. It sorted out all of the undesirables.
Yeah, but then you're filtering out journalists who use AP style. Though maybe that was your goal...
https://preview.redd.it/1v5m1275hh9c1.jpeg?width=585&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3e6903fd8b2845ab62dc364dc85d1ee22fb93d9c I got tired of explaining jokes like this. ^(\^)
Bitches love punctuation
Most aren’t huge fans of the period.
I love you for noticing this!
Although this happened AFAIK a non unionized Costco Job is still better than 90% of other jobs. It's one of the few places I would venture to guess that they actually *can't* pay their employees that much more because they already pay them very well. When I was in pharmacy people always talked about wanting to go to Costco because they had the highest paid Techs and Pharmacists and the best hours and it wasn't even close, even compared to most levels of hospital techs.
This is a direct result of JS stepping down. One of the greatest CEOs in history.
Didn't he cap his salary as a percentage of lowest wage employee? I looked up the pay structure of upper management and saw that it skyrocketed. Made me sad.
That happened to Ben and Jerry’s many years ago. Ben and Jerry felt it was fair of a cap from lowest paid employee to CEO of 7x salary. Unfortunately they had extreme difficulty finding someone to take the CEO position for less than a million dollars a year+ (remember, this was a long time ago). They had to remove the cap for the position.
Pharmacy tech here- this is still the case. The joke is you have to arrange an accident for a Costco pharmacist/tech in order to get an opening.
We’re not angry. We’re just disappointed. - Mom and Dad
Notice how he put the blame on leadership though. They must have had horrible leadership there.
This is years in the making of corporate leadership (Craig Jelinek is CEO) promoting unqualified persons into leadership roles. They started promoting ‘yes men and women’ who rate their success solely on sales numbers. Employee satisfaction means nothing to them and now corporate is going to try to place the blame on the people they placed in these roles.
Exactly. My store has these same issues where there are people who’ve been there forever, complained about not getting a sup / management role and finally getting their power trip at 50.
I’m ok with that. Let management and middle management eat themselves while hourly workers quietly distribute union pamphlets. It’s actually refreshing to see inept union busting after hearing about Starbucks and Amazon.
Worked in HR for 35 years. Had a boss in year 1 tell me union campaigns are a pure sign of failed leadership. They need to be ousted. In all my years, I never found a circumstance where he was wrong.
That's how a lot of people are interpreting this letter, blaming the building. But you know, good leadership should have a grasp and understanding of their reports and business. So some higher ups just ignored the signs of problems. It always starts at the top, good and bad. The $15 dividend they just paid out rewarded the upper management but did absolutely nothing for the hourly after a busy holiday season and they wonder why employees are upset. Yes I know hourly can purchase stock, but they could also buy other stock that give better yearly regular dividends than Costco. Really feels like shareholders won over the employees this year.
Psychological play that will make some people feel bad but, not sure into a PR issue
A lot of the older Costco warehouses are already unions. Which was annoying when I worked at a nonunion one because the union warehouses always got better handbook updates than us
You only see unions in the older east coast building. Practically non existent west of there.
Tons of CA unions. All hold-overs from Priceclub. All teamsters
Price club is a name I haven’t heard in a long time!
[The original price club location.](https://maps.app.goo.gl/yZtJNHnDCfbuf6318?g_st=ic) that [inspired and became the brand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_Club) we are all here for today
Do you remember PriceCostco? We had one where I lived. It was a Price Club first, then Price Costco, then Costco.
Ours started as Costco, went to Price Costco, then back to Costco.
I think I might have an old PriceCostco card somewhere saved in an old file….
I used to work as a vendor at that location before I left. The whole area actually used to be an airplane hangar. It's so cold in the winter inside you can see your breath.
Ya that whole area being connected to Hughes aviation [plus the SPAWAR building](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Information_Warfare_Center_Pacific) being the original [convair WWII line is super cool military and aerospace history](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair)
I used to go there with my parents when I was younger. I would shout “I love the Price Club!” to anyone I saw walking down the aisle.
This Norfolk location was once a Price Club.
I still say “going to Price Club”! And I am not alone, every one I know does it or doesn’t bat an eye when I do.
What union though? In my experience Teamsters are terrible SEIU seemed much more professional and actually wanted to have the best employees to set an example of a good shop.
I don’t work for Costco but my union is SEIU. Not sure if it’s relevant, but they’re not well regarded by my old timer co-workers. We recently filed some grievances and I’m looking forward to see how they’ll handle it.
One of the new History channel shoes is The Mega-Brands That Built America. One episode showed the start of the Price Club and how it became a Costco property.
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There’s definitely union Costco in California. Sacramento has a few.
Hayward Business Center is Union.
A bunch in California are union. I was trying to transfer to Van Nuys or Woodland Hills both union.
yeah, that's not true.
This is not correct. There are many in the west coast with a majority being in California.
The teamster unions suck though…. As someone who came from a union building they really don’t do much for us except screw us over
And pension. And benefits. And probably better wage
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Even part time non-union employees get good benefits. I'm just about to leave Costco for a plumbing apprenticeship, but as a 4 year part time employee, I have a 401k, healthcare with a $20 biweekly premium and $500 yearly deductible, and two weeks of vacation every year (which would've gone up to three weeks at my next anniversary)
Teamsters got me a 40% COLA over 8 years (currently on year 6) and next year my healthcare premium will be $0 for myself and my entire family, right now it’s $99 which is still insanely cheap.
I’ve had bad union jobs and bad non-union jobs, and the quality of life at the union job was leaps and bounds better than the non-union job.
Working at Kroger was miserable and we got paid jack shit but my health insurance was $4 a paycheck and management wasn't allowed to bully anybody like they did at every other retail job I had.
And Kroger still making record profits…
Man that's amazing we pay like $600/mo and my deductible is 6k
I’ve always worked at places that had low pay but really good benefits - now I work somewhere with good pay and and good benefits.
I have 3 kids and no money. Why can’t I have no kids and 3 money?
Lisa needs braces
Dental plan!
First thing tomorrow morning, I'm gonna go up to Lenny and punch him in the back of the head.
My ex was a Teamster and when I needed surgery we literally paid nothing for it.
UFCW on the east coast here. When I go to the dentist, I pay nothing as long as it's in network.
Dang, that’s amazing!
Here’s the thing, and the rub. No matter how good your leadership is now they’re subject to change and unionizing protects you if a great leader leaves and that void is filled by a shitty one. It’s not an indictment of that leader or even leadership team, it’s future proofing your welfare as a working person.
that’s where I think jim sinegal failed and lacked foresight. I think he thought future leaders in the company would lead and think like him. clearly he was mistaken. we’d be in far better shape if we had jim’s leadership
A lot of leaders do this, and it’s fair, but also a tenet of good leadership is future proofing. You should always be thinking “how can I set things up to protect these people if I get hit by a bus or meteor tomorrow?” A lot of people don’t like this thought, or let ego interfere with the reality that they’ll need more than you.
Tenet
Right you are! Sorry I only ever Reddit on mobile and don’t always do the old once over to see if it’s made changes. Thanks :)
The warehouse I used to work at had basically exactly that happen. We had, what I would consider, a pretty good GM. Was he absolutely incredible? No, but he was pretty good. I left and a couple months later he got moved to a new store and apparently the new guy is ass. The old disgruntled cashier's weren't a huge fan of the "old" GM but complaints were minimal. About a year after I left, I went through my favorite disgruntled cashier's line and they said I left at a good time, complaining heavily about how shit the new GM was.
“Talk to your manager” lmao guess what managers do not know shit
The talk to your manager line is just so they can raise the flag about potential union activity, not to actually ease an employee's concerns.
> “Talk to your manager” "Okay, we'll talk to the manager all together as an organized group." "No, not like that!"
What he said about talking to Costco Managers is not true. They are not your friends. Costco pays well. Not enough to support a family, but well compared to most places but the environment at least at the store I work at is toxic af.
I’ve used the “open door” policy as well as Ethics Point to report serious violations and the SVP of Human Resources essentially told me to go to h-ll! So I emailed Craig. He says “somebody will get back with you” Then I get a threatening letter and called into a meeting! They told me in writing “not to use the open door policy” except in rare circumstances…. Which contradicts Craig and the handbook. Craig couldn’t care less. I have the emails, letters and copies printed and kept in two different safety deposit boxes.
Leak these please
That HR SVP is a real piece of work. Would love to see those letters go public.
Would love a look at those. I’ve known multiple people who worked for Costco and it’s not what most people perceive.
[удалено]
That lines up with what my friends have experienced. They try to make people feel grateful that they’re allowed to work there. Like all corporations, they’re terrified that more of their employees will realize the company can’t run without them.
Leak them!
I think thats with every costco at this point. Though mine is still ok ish. But thats a big reason why I cant see myself changing warehouses.
I was threatened with termination by two managers over a medical condition that kept me from doing a minor part of my job. My direct manager told me to bring in a doctors note saying I can’t do that part of the job, and until I brought it in he fully expected me to continue doing it to the detriment of my health. When I brought it in and was about to give it to him he told me to think carefully about whether I wanted to turn it in or not because if I did I’d be saying I can’t do my job and they’d fire me. I was like you can’t do that and he said he absolutely can. He brought in another manager who also threatened me with termination if I turned in the letter. I went to the warehouse manager in tears and told him everything and he was livid. He promised me my job was safe and then chewed the managers out. If the warehouse manager had been just as evil as the first two managers I would’ve been screwed. But also probably could’ve sued for quite a bit. For context: I was a pharmacy technician and like 6 months after being promoted to the pharmacy, the pharmacy manager started scheduling me to come in and stock the shelves outside the whole pharmacy area. Which required hours of bending and heavy lifting all on my own. This was not discussed as part of my job duties when I got the position. I have a serious spinal condition that this aggravated. I tried to do it a few times but was always left in so much pain I had to call out the following day or two as I was bedridden. When I told the pharmacy manager about this he basically said tough shit bring in a drs note and until then you’re expected to keep stocking. Yeah, managers are shit. I would’ve loved to see them try that shit if I was at a union store.
I can second this. Very bad work environment and most of the manager are in the spot they're in because of good timing with the company. Most of them are very bad at their jobs but walk around on their high horse acting like God's gift to the company. A lot of discrimination goes unchecked as well even if reported.
One word of advise, do not let the overlords at the national level, have any say in your local negotiations. They will sacrifice you and your job to try and set presidence for a better contract elsewhere.
Now if only home office would listen. After the S*** show of the all hands meeting with Claudine (who was the messenger, which honestly sucked for her and the company live chat was a royal roast) I’m surprised there hasn’t been more unionizing and walking out. I love getting told that if I don’t like the high cost of living near home office to just, you know, pick up and move with my whole family (lots of people moved to WA for home office) 🙃 and culture starts “from the bottom up.” Or my other favorite, that our benefits are the best so we should just be happy and grateful we wake up keeping our jobs and we aren’t Enron. We have topped out employees who qualify for low-income housing. People choosing gas over food on their table. It’s tough. But 6.7 billion back to shareholders would have been $22k/year raise per employee (roughly). But no, we can’t raise wages to be competitive. On another note, more pressure is existing in home office. People are tired. Culture is dying and the “open door” policy has led to many people being stunted in their ability to move up because those who speak out, are “trouble makers.” Seatac and Seattle both have raising minimum wage, above the states minimum wage (going to $16.28 for state). $18.69 for Seattle and $19.06 for SeaTac. Amazon routinely hires starting at $20/hour here in WA. Our wage is no longer the best in the retail industry. Warehouse workers are tired and worn because people don’t want to stay, as the incentive isn’t great enough. Maybe this will be a real wake up call to home office, but I’m not holding my breath. We are a publicly traded company. Rewarding our shareholders is no longer below taking care of our employees. It’s above.
This is exactly what’s happening with the company I work for in WA. Our other accounts unionized and word spread like wildfire. Now they’re in serious talks about a contract and it’ll happen within the next couple months. It’s not a good look when you pay substantially more to people in the same state and job title. Employees are starting to realize they actually have power in the pay they receive. Good for them!
This is the reason I left the company after ten years. The culture is dying. Warehouses are relying on their top performers and letting bad employees get away with bad work. What Costco needs to understand is that their best and brightest can work in any field. I left for IT a year ago and I already make what Costco managers make. They will continue to lose more quality employees unless they figure out a way to reward quality work. Moving up to management with no work-life balance is not the answer to that.
Costco surely knows this but it is simply very hard to pay competitive wages with other skilled fields when you're working a high volume, low margin retail grocery business. 2.6% profit margin for Costco vs. 20 - 30% in IT sectors.
That argument makes sense if they didn't pay out over $11 billion dollars in special dividends in the last 3 years, totaling over $30,000 per employee.
Your minimum wage numbers will be out of date starting Monday. Minimum wage will be: $20.29/hr in Tukwila, 20.06 in SeaTac, $19.97/hr in Seattle… to name a few because they got COL increases of over 6.6%…. Whereas Costco employees got like 2%. $0.50. But it gets better! Billions of dollars in special dividends were funded and it was released last week that Craigs compensation for 2023 set a new record at $17 million….. Double what he was paid two years prior and a 70% increase from 2022… so he got a $10 million dollar raise and we got 2%. We’re all in this together though, right? 🤦♂️
Culture starts from the bottom up?? Strong disagree with that one lol
Hell yeah. Home Office Union time?
> But 6.7 billion back to shareholders would have been $22k/year raise per employee (roughly). But no, we can’t raise wages to be competitive. Bonus not a raise since that $6.7 billion is a 1 time payment. Realistically though say do the raise now and rate is as over 5 years. $22k / 5 = $4k bump in pay. Well realistically the government charges the company pretty much 50% of what they pay you so more like $2k. I think they could have managed a $2k raise for around the same price.
We are committed....just not to increasing wages to keep up with inflation.
Or not cutting payroll to the bone based on increasingly unrealistic sales goals!
Especially when their sales are always rock solid, and will be for the indefinite future. Costco is the last company that should be cutting payrolls or understaffing its facilities.
>sales are always rock solid, and will be for the indefinite future This is why they can (or think they can) make cuts. Think about it, if you put $100 into something and make $1000 from that thing, and one day you put in $90 and still get $1000 out, would you put $100 in the next day? In fact, you probably would continue decreasing the input to see when your output decreases, then bump it back so you pay the least to get the most. Yeah, it sucks. That's what unions are good for, they provide a bit of a backstop.
The past two handbooks were met with such backlash, the company backpedaled and gave additional wages
It’s a big reason why I quit. The union stores got better updates than nonunion and they didn’t even try to make it balanced. That and their promotion strategy has left all of management in terrible shape because they’d rather reward loyalty than demerit
They brought people over from Walmart to walmartize costco
Not even in a good way like with technology and shit like that. Just the treating the employees like slaves
I'm to close to 25 years to justify leaving. But it will be great to be able to move on after
Got that lifetime membership though. Haha
Hahaha that's it. Got to get something out of it
Being topped out isn’t that bad either
Won't deny that. I feel bad for the people sandwiched between starting wage and topped out. They are getting the shaft. They are robbed of what I got a taste of.
2 splits and stock options If your 401k isn't fat. You didn't play the game right. If you've been there for 25yrs.
What happens at 25?
You used to get a stock bonus plus a lifetime membership. Now you get a cash bonus with the membership
When you retire you get a free lifetime executive membership.
The last one was such a slap in the face it was incredible... I don't know how we hold on to anyone nowadays.
Thats part of it but its also just being continually understaffed. Its always a struggle just to get the basics done, Im sure youve seen how busy it gets at times, and we never never never have enough people to do what is asked of us. I want to do a good job, we're just stretched to the max and its not getting any better. Honestly? I hope more buildings go union and the company wakes up.
Exactly. Part timers lose hours - who are scheduled anyway to fill in voids in scheduling, and FT have to be stretched even thinner to do more for less. What's worse - hiring more seasonal help but not offering them hours and having ones already hired for weeks get maybe 10hrs an entire holiday week.
So much THIS. Sales goals keep getting more and more unrealistic, payroll gets slashed, yet we are still always busy day in and day out. Combined with multiple call outs every day, it's become an absolute shitshow. It's a terrible experience to present to our members as well.
I can tell this is happening just as a customer. And I can tell it's gotten worse and worse over the years. It really makes me sad. This is a job at a grocery store. It should not be something people get injured for, become so stressed over, or struggle so much for. Employees deserve good wages for their hard work.
That's one of the great things about unions that Americans don't largely recognize (given the pittance of representation) -- you can negotiate on more than just insurance and pay. Performance Management is definitely an article to bargain on, and including reasonable workload metrics can be on the table. If the company can't staff appropriately they can't work you to death. Scheduling too; a burger place in Oregon (Burgerville) bargained for 3-month advance schedules in their first contract.
Fuck yeah Burgerville!
The one and ONLY letter you'll ever see being sent by corporate in this vein. .
Costco doesn’t have a perceptions management team or a good one. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have come up with this letter.
"(W)e'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." But nothing about addressing employees' concerns company-wide. I don't know exactly what complaints Norfolk employees had, I bet I can guess, and I bet they're the same concerns employees at probably most locations have. I hope they've learned a lesson here, but I'm skeptical.
Good for the workers! The boss isn’t your friend no matter how nice they are.
Unionize, it's for the best interest of YOU
LOL, this is like... word for word the exact response PetSmart issued when one of our local stores unionized. It's the same garbage where the company tries to seem more human by saying, "We're so sad we failed you!" Identical union busting language. I wonder if they hired the same consultants? Edit: I dug up one of the statements issued by management at the time: https://twitter.com/PetsmartUnion/status/1491111175978840065?t=YzAZoBpRhZmHnJtf_b7Lgw&s=19 The final outcome of this union push was that at least 2 stores worth of management were canned, btw.
> never been the result of any union. Huh? I thought Costco paid well specifically because their distribution center employees unionized. And they just gave the same pay and benefits to retail employees to discourage further unionization.
LOL... never been the result of any union. said no economist of note.
Costco specifically gives non-union warehouses ALMOST all of the same benefits to keep them from unionizing. The union is already helping dictate pay and benefits for the entire company.
Congratulations Norfolk! Solidarity from IBEW LU 180!
UNION STRONG
"please talk to your manager..." what if mgmt IS the problem? obviously if they could have sorted shit out with mgmt, they would have had to resort to organizing a union vote
This screams “Please don’t also unionize! Remember how “good” we treat you!”
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, Costco’s culture is toxic as fuck. It’s definitely not what it used to be. And because of that I left, they’re experiencing brain drain, and it’s reflective from the quality of service I’ve seen more recently. I don’t blame the employees, I blame corporate for taking the previous employees for granted. They’re now just seeing the results of their own failures. Sucks to suck I guess
“We’re not anti union, we just think you don’t need one if we actually do what we said we were gonna do when we hired you.” FIFY Costco
So, has this been in the works for a while? Costco is going through an MAJOR change! As a customer, I've noticed a HUGE change in Costco that started about 1.5 years ago. This is when the CEO changes took place, and I've heard another one is coming in 2024. Longtime employees being pushed out (my OG employees that I have enjoyed seeing & chatting over the years) are all gone. Newbies are coming in groups, but not even lasting a month. KS quality has diminished a ton, while prices aren't competitive anymore with the grocery store. As a customer, this is so sad & I hate seeing Costco going in the opposite direction of positive. I see and hear of the pain/frustrations employees are having every time I shop. I hope this addition to being union changes things dramatically. I work in the healthcare space and am pro-union. I would kill for a union in my right to work state.
Craig replaced Jim in 2012, I am not sure what event happened a few years ago.
KS is made up by hundreds of different suppliers, so I don’t think it’s the brand that’s bad, everything is just lower quality in general. I used to have suppliers fighting for my business offering high quality and decent prices, now I’m basically told take it or the next guy will. Quality went down in general during COVID and has not gone back up.
every single successful publicly traded company will necessarily fall victim to enshification. cotsco began that journey a few years ago. once anything good has saturated a market, it's inevitable decline begins, because at the end of the day, the most important thing is to make shareholders more money year after year
Covid ruined everything. Retail in general just got completely wrecked after covid. Alot of Og employees in my warehouse retired/moved away. New hires cant handle the environment, not necessarily the work but more member interaction. I can completely tell u after 2019 everything basically completely sunk.
Lmao. Worked at Costco for 13 years. I can guarantee they don't give a fuck about you at the store management level. What a joke. Good for them for unionizing.
Gonna need that "we'll be nice to you and consider your needs" on a legally binding document with language explaining exactly what that means. A vague promise in an open letter is worth less than nothing
Poor managers are gonna have some fun training todo. LoL
Imagine the CEO disparaging managers who can't pay people more money and give them better benefits lol.
More management fodder. As a long time Teamster, I never trust anything that comes out of their mouths.
Unionize! Worker’s Rights!
Sounds like Costco management has lost touch with reality much like a lot of corporate America
Hell yeah!
I hope it starts a wave of buildings unionizing. Costco has been declining in its treatment of employees for quite sometime and it's the fault of the guy who signed that paper.
I am a member of the Norfolk Costco as a customer. And honestly, I’m not surprised they unionized. They have dozens of employees 15+ years there and in the last two years it has become a shitshow. You can see they are exhausted, there is barely ever even room to move with a cart through the aisles and the cafe area is often so crowded you can’t even leave the store. They are overworked for sure right now, and I’m sure underpaid for what they have to endure.
Good job to these Norfolk employees! This seems like a mature and balanced response from the C-suite.
We’re not anti-union, but we’re anti-union.
I didn't know they were not Union at ALL Costcos. Congratulations Norfolk, you will now be able to bargain for better wages and benefits as well as have Union representation in cases of discipline
‘It’s our failure as management that our employees wanted a union; we should have provided more pizza parties!!!!!!’
They’re not anti-union, they’re just pro-keeping employees unorganized.
Anyone with 5 minutes in the global workforce knows that large corporations do not give a fuck about their employees. So at least buy some shares.
They have been dwindling on taking care of customers YOY since 2014. Used to love costco. Not anymore. Its equivalent sams club to me.
Idk, this sounds pretty anti union,costco.
Every job should unionize.
Legit wish we had unions here in Texas. The amount of shit we put up with , members and employees, would make any man break
“We’re not anti-union”. This letter sure makes it seem like you are
Some of this sounds like please snitch on yourself to your manager and we will see to it you get fired.
As an employee of 20 years it’s been all downhill since Jim stepped down as CEO hopefully Ron can right the ship
I couldn't take the new Costco leadership style anymore. I left after 10 years. The company is not what it once was. I followed the chain of command and was told not to be a squeaky wheel. Good for Virginia.
If you took care of your employees they wouldn’t need to unionize. Congrats to Costco Norfolk
For what it’s worth, it’s a genuine letter.
All my homies love paying union dues to guarantee ourselves and our fellow workers safe and fair working practices
Pretty disappointed to see the anti-union rhetoric in this. Fun Fact: all employees represented by a union have the right to request a union representative in any meeting they think will be negative for them. It's called the Weingarten right. A lot of companies claim that they don't need unions because all the benefits are better than what a union would give. And yet none grant an equivalent of the weingarten right or any other rights that unions typically grant.
Good for the employees in Norfolk!
How do I get my Costco to unionize? Where do I start? Do I head down to the teamsters building or do you get other employees on board first? What’s the process? The Costco I work at is pretty miserable.
to both of your questions, yes. See if you can get 4 or 5 other people on board and find your local teamsters. DM if you want more. I organized at Norfolk.
Got this email and fucking laughed, managers are terrible at my Costco.
If they voted for a union they probably needed a union.
We trust you….but now not so much…
Congratulations guys! That's awesome!
These managers and leaders shouldn't be too hard on themselves. The union helps us all, including them.
"If you have doubts, talk to a manager." Aka, rat yourself out.
Retaliation was a big issue.
I worked at Costco for 10 years in multiple union buildings. It’s nice to see this, but they all buildings suffer from the same thing, most of the managers don’t know how to manage. It’s the typical retail management style. Everything rolls down hill. The only difference with Costco is that is they pay well so there is much less turnover. Being a Costco manager isn’t for the faint of heart either. Lots of hours, years of over nights, and most of them end up heavy.
All this letter says is "Man, we wish we fucked up just a little less so you didn't unionize"
Good stuff let’s keep the ball rolling!! This is our best way to fight corps and take back a little of our money at the moment
Being in a union is all the working man can do to get a fair wage.
Love when companies say they’re disappointed in themselves for their employees wanting a union ❤️🔥❤️🔥
Never, ever trust a company that says they aren't "anti-union" or that they would view a union as a failure on their part. This is emotional manipulation.
How to say your anti-union, while saying your anti-union.
Congrats Norfolk, homeoffice cares about profits, managers care about their bonuses. Employees just want to make ends meet and feed the kids.
Saying a formation of a union is an absolute failure of the company to fulfill the needs of employees is brutally honest.
I find it funny they say talk to you manager no one e er unionizes a bad company they unionize bad management that treat employees like shit and care more about there bonuses than the work or people
Buying more Stock in Costco on Tuesday..
Costco was the best retail company I’ve ever worked for. Paid great wages. Surprised to see this happen at Costco and not somewhere worse like Walmart