About 18,000 Costco workers will go on strike beginning Feb. 1 if their union doesn’t reach a deal with the warehouse retailer, the union announced Sunday.
The Teamsters represent Costco workers in 56 warehouses across five states, CNN reported. The 18,000-person strike would represent about 8% of Costco’s nationwide workforce.
A contract for the unionized workers expires on Jan. 31, and 85% of union members voted in favor of a strike after that deadline, according to the Teamsters.
“Our members have spoken loud and clear — Costco must deliver a fair contract, or they’ll be held accountable,” Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said. “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 has not publicly responded to the strike threat. The company has previously been lauded for its treatment of employees, but the union members said Costco leaders haven’t lived up to their public-facing ideals.
“Costco’s greedy executives have less than two weeks to do the right thing,” O’Brien said. “If they refuse, they’ll have no one to blame but themselves when our members go on strike.”
Strike authorization votes are a common union tactic ahead of contract expiration dates. Back in 2023, an overwhelming majority of Teamsters-represented UPS workers voted to authorize a strike, but the work stoppage never happened because a deal was reached late in the process.