More than 18,000 Costco workers, including drivers, warehouse and store employees, will go on strike at the end of the month if the union and America’s third-largest retailer fail to sign a new contract by Jan. 31.
Around 85% of Costco Teamsters across the country voted over the weekend in favor of striking, following a week of practice pickets at several warehouse locations, including in Sumner. The union represents around 150 workers in Washington state, according to Teamsters spokesperson Matt McQuaid.
Workers also staged practice pickets in Hayward and San Diego, California, and Long Island, New York last week, according to a union news release.
“From day one, we’ve told Costco that our members won’t work a day past Jan. 31 without a historic, industry-leading agreement,” Teamsters general president Sean M. O’Brien said in the Monday release.
The company did not immediately respond to McClatchy’s request for comment.
Negotiations have been ongoing since around September, said McQuaid, with the final round of bargaining underway this week near the retailer’s headquarters in Issaquah.
The union is seeking what it describes as “fair wages and benefits that reflect the company’s enormous success,” but exact numbers were not shared in the media release. McQuaid told McClatchy in a phone call on Monday that they are demanding “well above what we got in our last agreement, and the reason we’re asking for that is because this company has never been more profitable, and we deserve our fair share of that.”
The biggest asks revolve around wages and improved pension benefits, he added.
The contract that’s set to expire was signed in February 2022. The wage scale started at $17.50-$18.50 an hour for service assistants and clerks, $19 for meat cutters and $21.50 for truck drivers, peaking at $24.50 for service jobs and $29 for drivers. The highest earnings ranged from around $26 to $31, topping out at $27.95 to $32.65.
The company’s pension contributions in the prior contract were listed at $1.81 per straight hour, including hours worked on Sundays and holidays, paid vacation and sick or personal leave.
At the practice pickets last Tuesday in Sumner, workers held red, white and blue signs with the words “Strike Ready! A taste of what’s to come!” and “Just sampling,” a tongue-in-cheek reference to Costco’s beloved free tastings for customers.
Robert Campus, a member of the Tukwila-based Local 174, has been a fleet driver for 12 years.
“It’s time for Costco to stop prioritizing Wall Street and corporate executives over the workers who built the company,” he said in a press release after participating in the practice picket at the Costco Sumner Depot.
Costco is among the top-three retailers in the world, recording $234 billion dollars in sales in 2023, with U.S. sales accounting for 75% of that number, according to the National Retail Federation. The store ranks third behind Amazon and Walmart, which raked in $360 billion and $635 billion in sales last year.
The company reported $7.4 billion in net profits last September, the end of its 2023 fiscal year.
Costco has alluded to labor disputes as one of the “risks” that impacts its supply chain, The Hill reported on Monday.
