Teamsters: 18,000 Costco Workers Set to Strike Jan. 31

Costco could face a strike when an agreement covering 18,000 of its workers expires on Jan. 31.

Costco Teamsters voted to authorize a strike by an 85% margin, the union said in a Monday (Jan. 20) press release.

“Our members have spoken loud and clear — Costco must deliver a fair contract, or they’ll be held accountable,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in the 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.”

Costco did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

In December, during the company’s most recent earnings call, Costco CEO Ron Vachris said that the company will “take care of our employees as we have always done.”

“That means we’re going to focus on a fair and timely process for getting to an agreement with the Teamsters,” Vachris said during the Dec. 12 call. “We have a 40-year track record of dealing fairly with the Teamsters union, and really nothing has changed about that.”

About 8% of Costco’s 219,000 U.S. employees are Teamsters covered by this national contract, CNN reported Monday. That figure is higher than the less than 5% of retail workers who are represented by unions throughout the industry.

In the union’s Monday press release, Costco Teamsters said members have held practice picket actions over the past week in Hayward, California; Sumner, Washington; Long Island; and San Diego.

“Costco claims to treat workers better than the competition, but right now, it’s failing to live up to that reputation,” Tom Erickson, director of the Teamsters Warehouse Division, said in the release. “Management has less than two weeks to fix this — if they don’t, they’ll face the consequences.”

The company said during its December earnings call that its net sales during the quarter totaled $60.99 billion, a figure that was 7.5% higher than the previous year, and its comparable sales were up 5.2%.

“We’re feeling very good about the underlying membership metrics, and membership growth remains very strong,” Costco Chief Financial Officer Gary Millerchip said during the call. “We’ve seen some shift in more members coming through digital channels and there has been a reduction in average age of members because of that shift as well.”