In pursuit of higher wages and renegotiated employee benefits, more than 18,000 Costco union members nationwide voted to authorize a strike if the wholesale company doesn't agree to their terms by January 31, reported ABC News.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the union said earlier this week that members have voted by a margin of 85% to authorize a strike in response to what it said was the company’s refusal to present a fair contract offer.
The Costco Teamsters National Master Agreement, covering more than 18,000 Costco workers, is set to expire at the end of the month.
Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said that the vote represents a message to management that Costco must deliver a fair contract or risk its workers walking off the job.
“According to Teamsters, Costco recently reported $254 billion in annual revenue and $7.4 billion in net profits, which marked a 135% increase since 2018,” wrote ABC.
Last week, hundreds of Costco Teamsters nationwide organized practice pickets, the organization said in a press release Monday.
As of this month, there were 624 Costco Wholesale locations across the country, and the membership-only warehouse club chain is the third-largest retailer in the world behind Walmart and Amazon, reported ABC.
"We are the backbone of Costco," Bryan Fields, a Costco worker in Baltimore, Maryland, and member of Teamsters Local 570, said in the press release. "We drive its success and generate its profits. We hope the company will step up and do right by us, but if they don't, that's on them. The company will be striking itself."
During the fall of 2024, U.S. ports from Maine to Texas experienced a port strike when the contract between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance expired. The strike shut down ports that handle roughly half of the nation's cargo from ships. It was the first national longshoremen’s strike in the United States since 1977. The strike was suspended after less than a week when port employers offered an improved wage.