A bunch of Costco workers in Norfolk, Virginia, recently voted to unionize.
Now, given that Costco is a) a major chain, b) a retailer, and c) a company that exists in the United States of America, you'd be forgiven for assuming that the reaction from management would be less than warm.
Just look at the way Starbucks and Amazon has responded to organizing efforts in recent years. (Tl;dr, those two are not big fans of the labor movement.)
But Costco, that quirky wholesaler with its Kirkland brand and rotisserie chickens and gold bars, is trying a different approach.
In a memo to employees late last month, Costco's former CEO Craig Jelinek and current CEO Ron Vachris said they were "not disappointed in our employees; we're disappointed in ourselves as managers and leaders."
"The fact that a majority of Norfolk employees felt that they wanted or needed a union constitutes a failure on our part," they wrote the memo, which my colleague Parija Kavilanz reported on Thursday.
Jelinek stepped down as CEO on January 1, and Vachris is a 40-year Costco veteran who began working at the retailer as a forklift driver.
It's not terribly surprising coming from Costco, which has won plenty of praise over the years for worker-friendly policies, including higher starting wages and affordable healthcare benefits.
Still, the memo stands out for its sensitivity, especially at a time when some bosses are clawing back all the flexibility they embraced during the pandemic. And it's a far cry from the end-of-year message delivered to employees of the online furniture retailer Wayfair, whose CEO took a, um, less progressive approach.
Last month, Wayfair boss Niraj Shah told employees, in essence, to work more hours and stop worrying about work-life boundaries.
"Working long hours, being responsive, blending work and life, is not anything to shy away from," he told staff in a message that was widely received as being tone-deaf. "There is not a lot of history of laziness being rewarded with success."
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