A Nationwide Costco Strike Could Be Coming. Here's What We Know

Costco fans may be in for a rough surprise soon! Costco's unionized Teamsters announced via X (formerly known as Twitter) on Sunday, January 19, that they voted in favor of launching a strike against the company. The strike would be nationwide in the U.S., and it's not the first time the Teamsters have made such plans. Shortly after the October 2024 dock workers strike, the union began organizing its own December strike. While that didn't actually go through, things look a lot more solid this time around.

The strike would only apply to team members who are currently part of the union at Costco, which represents over 18,000 workers out of the 219,000 workers currently employed by the company in the U.S. While that might sound small, don't be fooled — the action would affect 56 different stores around the country and involve a whopping 8% of employees (per The Guardian).

The strike would not take place until January 31, 2025, when the current contract between the union and Costco expires. However, even with the vote still up in the air until then, if things don't change soon, it's likely to move forward given that 85% of the union's members were in favor of the action.

The catalyst behind the strike is that Teamsters feel Costco — a supermarket chain known for its low member prices (you can't even get access to those prices with a day pass) — has been providing employees with unfair pay and benefits for the work they put in. Considering that the client has seen profit increases of 135% over the last seven years, they feel that wages have not risen accordingly.

The general president of the Teamsters Union, Sean M. O'Brian, said of the strike in a press release, "Costco's greedy executives have less than two weeks to do the right thing. If they refuse, they'll have no one to blame but themselves when our members go on strike." Teamsters seem to be taking O'Brian's words seriously, as they have already started organizing practice pickets against the company in anticipation of the potential strike.

If you've got Costco shopping to do any time soon, you might want to head to your nearest supermarket and start grabbing items off the shelves in case the strike goes into effect and potentially impacts your usual supermarket haul. Alternatively, if you feel the Teamsters are in the right, you may want to avoid shopping at Costco until the union's demands are met. Either way, if you're looking for insider knowledge on shopping at Costco, check out Daily Meal's article covering 14 shopping tips from Costco employees.