Not to belabor this subject, but the individual Costco stores must have differences in management and working conditions. I have several friends and acquaintances that either work at our local Costco or are retired from there and every one of them has told me how good it is to work there. Great management, excellent wages, and a good environment in which to make a decent living. I suspect the stores that unionized weren't getting the same treatment and they felt the union could do better for them. Time will tell...Costco might be able to tick some of these boxes, but in some areas Tesla has a natural edge that is hard to replicate.
- Does Costco have an important mission?
- Do employees at Costco do interesting and challenging work?
- Are smart hardworking people attracted to working at Costco?
- Does CostCo have a flat organisation structure?
- Is company equity part of the salary package at Costco?
Hard working intelligent people rarely need a union, because usually the company knows how valuable they are, and retention is a priority.
I have no doubt some people will attempt to infiltrate Tesla with the intention to unionize. That will be for political, ideological, and self-interest reasons, nothing to do with how Tesla staff are treated.
This a risk recruitment and HR need to consider.
Optimus doing low-skill repetitive and boring work should mean all Tesla employees are eventually doing well paid interesting work and raising the bar on the qualifications and skills needed to join Tesla will help screen out future union infiltrators.
We are also at the stage where factory line employees from other car companies don't necessarily have any vital skills that Tesla needs to acquire. Higher skilled workers from existing car companies should have similar motivations to existing employees.
p.s., in retrospect I wish I wouldn't have sold my Costco shares a few years back! The SP has gone up ~700% since I sold. Oh well, hindsight is more accurate than foresight most times.
HODL!