Costco workers in Norfolk have unionised and Costco are seething.
Yeah, Costco has always been hated by Wall Street for how well it treats its workers, and how well they’re compensated. They’re always dinged for being able to send more profits to shareholders than they do, because they treat their workers too well.
They are pretty much the only large company that would send a letter like this that I would believe. Good for Norfolk, but no one should lump Costco in with, say, Walmart, as far as big box retailers go. They really do cleave to a higher ethical standard.
We’re not anti-union, but…
The best any Capitalist firm can offer to its employees is a “benevolent” dictatorship. Unions provide an actual change to the underlying power dynamic, which is why capitalist firms oppose them so much.
Super happy for the workers in Norfolk, let’s keep this kind of collective action rolling forward!
People credulously taking corporate speak at face value. You have to understand that this letter was crafted by a committee that included whichever anti-union consulting firms they have on retainer. The persona that a corporation projects is created and maintained by its public relations machine. It’s Edward Bernays-level propaganda to manipulate their employees, their customers, the government, and the public.
GOOD post
Just last night I watched the season 1 finale to Superstore and the “joke” message they were making was exactly what this letter is saying. Seriously guys you don’t need a union because we care! 🤣
Interesting. Pro union and have worked for Costco in the past. Hard to imagine they’d unionize since, at least while I worked there, they paid well and treated us well.
Alllthough, I worked in the foodcourt and that department kind ofgetst treated like second class compared to the checkers and warehouse.
Good. I know some people who work at Costco and they tell me that the work has been pure bullshit, overworked and constantly understaffed, hopefully this gets picked up and more Costcos unionize
when this union “win” raises the price of hotdogStill think unions are good?
Echoing others, Costco is a solid employer and I actually believe their sentiment.
HOWEVER
The difference between union and non-union is the difference between asking your employer pretty please to treat you well and telling your employer how you will accept being treated.
Even if the union yields no improvements whatsoever for the workers, it’s worth it just to have that express and clear leveling of the playing field.
Hey, serious question here, I own a small business with 8 employees. All profits for the business go back to employee bonuses / incentives. I pay myself $1/year and $0 in profit distributions. We cover medical benefits.
It seems like the sentiment amongst Lemmy is to unionize the employees, which I’m fine with, but am I allowed to pay their union dues?
My only qualm is it means less profit sharing for them, but if it improves morale to have that representation, I’m all for it. Ultimately, it is what they want.
I’m union dumb. I want to do right by the employees. But I also don’t want to get screwed to their detriment (e.g. Personnel Concepts, fuck that company).
In before anyone asks, I work contract gigs in a completely separate industry to pay my own bills. I own this business to create jobs and be part of the community.
There will always be an underlying adversarial relationship between employers and employees in a traditional capitalist framework.
Unions help even the playing field and are very important, but if you truly are interested in supporting the rights of your workers as much as possible, you must accept the fact that they cannot remain “your” workers.
What does that mean for you and your business? You should talk to your employees and the relevant orgs in your state/city about beginning the transition into a worker-owned co-op.
Depending on the business structure, state and local laws, and the industry you serve, the pathway to that is complicated. Look up worker cooperatives in your state and find organizations that specialize in helping businesses navigate that transition. There are legal, monetary, ethical, logistical, and emotional concerns that are all critical to address and understand, but it can be done. Businesses far larger than yours have successfully made the transition.
That would be my advice. But aside from that ultimate goal, unionize your workplace and place as much power in the hands of your employees as possible. Let them decide how they want to structure pay, dues, etc, that’s the whole point of worker empowerment.
This doesn’t read like seething to me.
Like, it’s great that people are unionizing, because even if there’s the best possible relationship between businesses and labor, the union still makes that relationship more equitable.
But that doesn’t mean that the creation of the union has to be viewed as hostility between labor and business.I’ll be interested to see if their good reputation holds up to pressure,but as of right now I haven’t heard anything that makes me want disbelieve their statement.
But that doesn’t mean that the creation of the union has to be viewed as hostility between labor and business.
Of course it does. The IWW isn’t a yellow union. It understands that this is a class war, not a class “collaboration.” The capitalists certainly think it’s a class war.
My question would be “what’s the win condition”?
A business that tangibly treats labor better is better than one that does not.
A union lessens the power imbalance, but it’s still better to start from a place where cooperation is possible.So if the relationship must be hostile, what’s the win condition?
The win condition is the workers owning the means of production. In the meantime, it’s a struggle to take as much of our labor’s value from our employers as possible, because we’re entitled to all of it.
Why would an employer ever employ someone if there is no net gain to the employer? You are not entitled to all the value of your labor unless you are self employed and that sounds like a lot more difficult than showing up to work for 40 hours of work that’s been organized by someone else.
Removed by mod
Idk how you read that letter and interpret it as “seething”. I read nothing of the sort.
When something challenges some people’s world views, the only response they can muster is to imagine whoever is involved must be lying through their teeth.
Yeah, I’m sure the corporate suits at Costco writing "We’re not anti-union, but . . . " are being perfectly genuine.
I feel Ike most people don’t realize how Costco workers are treated which is important context for this letter. Costco literally looks like a union job on its surface, good pay, full benefits, good time off accrual rates. Like yeah i understand what the letter is saying. They already treat their workers as good as most unions are able to negotiate, I’d feel a little upset about it too if i was in that leadership. Not because they joined a union but because they felt like they needed to. Would make me wonder if there were poor conditions i wasn’t aware of.
Nah, this time is exactly the right time to unionize. This way the company does not have to fight the Union and they can cooperate properly.
However, if under new management the company where to ever change her tune…
Exactly. Why wait until your employer is hostile to try to unionize? It’ll just be 10x harder then. If things are good this union will help make sure it stays that way.
I mean, if working for Costco is anything like what I’ve heard I wouldn’t expect the union to change very much. Even if things are good there I think unionizing is a good idea to make sure it stays that way. Or maybe this specific location had some problems?
Anyway, seems like a pretty tame letter and of course they have to say something about it. But I support whatever the workers decide to do next.
Sincerely, Some uninformed speculative internet commenter.
