Mei W.
On February 1, the Teamsters announced that it reached a tentative agreement with Costco just before midnight on January 31, the expiration date of the current contract. Throughout January, unionized workers prepared to strike for higher wages and better benefits, voting 85% in favor of a strike, practicing pickets outside of warehouses, and holding a rally in front of Costco headquarters during the retail monopoly’s annual shareholder meeting.
The union stated that the agreement will be presented to workers for a vote. According to posts on social media, workers will be presented the agreement by this week, followed by a 2 week voting period. The Teamsters has not publicly disclosed the terms of the tentative agreement.
The 18,000 Teamsters Costco workers, spread across 56 stores in multiple states, represent 8% of Costco’s 219,000-strong US workforce. The tentative agreement comes a day after Costco announced pay raises—but only for workers at non-unionized warehouses. The changes include $1 increases in the hourly wage of topped out workers per year for the next three years and a 50 cent increase in starting pay.
While CEO Ron Vachris boasted that this will help the company’s “hourly wages and benefits […] continue to far outplace others in the retail industry,” workers on social media have pointed out the insignificance of these changes, which are in fact not raises when considering real wage decline as the cost of living for workers increases. Many workers are neither topped out nor new, and therefore will not get pay raises. It takes a minimum of over 5 years, and on average 7-10 years, for Costco workers to top out. According to ZipRecruiter, the current average hourly wage of a Costco worker is $22.20.
For the fraction of workers who are topped out, the changes are also imperceptible. Prior to this, hourly wages of topped out workers increased by 65 cents each year – around 3% each year – over the past three years, totaling to the current wage of $29.20 per hour. Wages will now increase by a dollar – equivalent, again, to 3% of the current wage – each year over the next three years.
Starting hourly wage for new workers will increase by 50 cents, raising it to $20 per hour. For the majority of Costco workers who live in metropolitan areas, such as Phoenix, San Diego, and San Francisco, where warehouses are concentrated, this hourly wage is far below the wage needed to afford rent.
image: Costco Teamster workers practice picket in January, IBT website
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