Costco workers in Norfolk have unionised and Costco are seething.

  • Lettuce eat lettuce@lemmy.ml
    ·
    11 months ago

    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!

  • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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    edit-2
    11 months ago

    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.

  • JamesJonathanSandwichTheFourth
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    11 months ago

    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

    • Jknaraa@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      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.

      • GarbageShoot [he/him]
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        11 months ago

        Yeah, I'm sure the corporate suits at Costco writing "We're not anti-union, but . . . " are being perfectly genuine.

  • FALGSConaut [comrade/them]
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    11 months ago

    When I was working at Costco I was told that the reason Costco has better benefits than most places is they just match the union contracts in order to avoid further unionization. And I gotta say it works pretty well, I tried bringing up starting/joining a union while I was there and most people just didn't want to rock the boat and risk losing what they were getting already.

    • SokathHisEyesOpen@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      Costco seems to be a pretty great place to work, even without a union. They really do seem to be one of the last honest companies. I bought a router there a couple of years ago, and two weeks later I received a check for $20 in the mail, with an explanation that they negotiated lower pricing for the routers and are passing the savings along to the customers.

    • averagedrunk@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      Probably not. It's pretty high up on the top for the last 6 hours across Lemmy instances so there are likely people who aren't really looking at where they are.

  • heaiser@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    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! 🤣

  • Floon@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    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.