Teamsters seek end to federal oversight, Costco workers should pay attention

The Teamsters’ bid to end federal oversight was not about a Costco paycheck on Thursday, but workers at the chain should still notice the signal. By asking to close out the monitorship created under the 1989 consent decree, the union was trying to turn a long corruption-era chapter into proof of internal strength, just as Costco Teamsters head into the next round of fights over wages, scheduling and contract enforcement.

The joint motion, filed June 17 with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, came from a case that dates to a 1988 racketeering lawsuit filed by then-U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani. Reuters reported that the consent decree led to a court-appointed monitor, a review board and election reforms, and that the review board has permanently barred about 400 people from union membership. In 2015, Chief Judge Loretta Preska approved a five-year transition plan that was supposed to end government supervision in 2020, making the latest filing the final move in a very long unwind.

For Costco workers, the immediate question is not legal housekeeping. It is whether a cleaner public landing gives the Teamsters more room to push harder at the bargaining table and in grievance fights. Sean M. O’Brien called the filing the end of "the longest monitorship of any union, corporation, nonprofit, or public entity in U.S. history," and framed it as proof that the union had built internal controls and a culture of vigilance. That message matters in a workplace where the union’s leverage rests on a binding agreement, not a handbook that can be rewritten by management.

The Costco side of that leverage has already been tested. Teamsters-represented workers at Costco voted on Jan. 20, 2025, to authorize a strike by an 85% margin if no deal was reached by the Jan. 31 deadline. The union says it represents more than 18,000 Costco workers nationwide across 56 stores in California, Washington, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and New York, while Costco has 219,000 U.S. employees and 617 U.S. stores. That meant the Teamsters contract covered less than 10% of the chain’s stores, but it still carried real pressure, especially after Costco raised most hourly U.S. store workers to more than $30 an hour, with top-of-scale pay set at $30.20 and then rising by $1 in each of the next two years, while entry-level pay rose to $20.

Tom Erickson, the union’s warehouse division director, said the strike vote responded to Costco’s "greed and blatant disregard for the bargaining process." Bryan Fields, a Costco worker with Teamsters Local 570, said members were the backbone of Costco and would strike if the company did not step up. The current Costco Teamsters National Master Agreement runs through Jan. 31, 2028, and the end of federal oversight gives the union a chance to argue that it can police itself while pressing harder when the contract is tested on the floor.