🛑 Right to Work: Protecting Your Job from Being Undermined

In a unionized workplace, only union employees — and select management roles — are allowed to perform union job duties. This is not just a policy — it’s a legally enforceable part of the Union Contract designed to protect your job, your workload, and your health.

🔒 What “Right to Work” Really Means

In this context, Right to Work refers to a strict limitation on who can perform union-represented labor:

• Only union employees can do your job
  
  

• Specific area managers are exceptions — as defined in the contract
  
  

• All other non-union staff and salaried managers are prohibited from filling in for union work
  
  

❌ No More “Covering Gaps”

Without this protection, management could:

• Use salaried or non-union employees to perform your tasks
  
  

• Avoid hiring or scheduling enough people
  
  

• Pressure employees to “do more with less” by taking on multiple roles
  
  

But with this clause in place, they can’t. If management violates the contract and performs union duties, you or a coworker can file a grievance — and the union will act to enforce it.

⚖️ Why It Matters

This rule forces the company to staff properly. They can’t lean on salaried staff to “cover shifts” or bypass union labor:

• If they’re short-staffed, that’s their problem to solve — not yours
  
  

• If they’re behind on a task, they need to hire, not stretch you thinner
  
  

• If they break the rules, they risk a grievance payout and accountability
  
  

👥 Let Managers Manage

This rule also helps management do what they’re supposed to do: manage. When they’re constantly stepping in to do basic labor just to keep things moving, everyone suffers:

• Supervisors can’t coach, plan, or support you if they’re stuck stocking, cashiering, or pushing carts
  
  

• Workers burn out trying to keep up with the demand of doing multiple jobs at once
  
  

• Efficiency drops, and morale goes with it
  
  

💰 No Excuse to Understaff

Costco is a highly profitable company — both corporately and at the building level (approximately $10 million last fiscal year). There is no valid excuse to underpay, overwork, or stretch labor just to save a few dollars.

Union protections like this ensure:

• Staffing decisions reflect real demand
  
  

• Managers focus on leadership
  
  

• Workers are respected and protected
  
  

✅ Summary

Without Right to Work Protections

-Managers fill in for union work

-Understaffing goes unchecked

-Workers stretched too thin

-Managers stuck doing labor

With Right to Work Protections

-Only union members do union jobs

-Understaffing becomes a liability

-Clear limits on duties and workloads

-Managers freed up to actually manage

Right to Work clauses give you power.
Power to protect your role, your workload, and your health — and the ability to hold the company accountable when they try to cut corners.