Metro Detroit PSA - Don't go to Madison Heights Costco
Sorry if this isn't the place but Im trying to get the word out and raise awareness.
I happen to work at this location. We have multiple employees who have tested positive for COVID-19. After the initial case the company is doing their best to hide numbers. One such employee is being told he has to return to work this Monday only 7 days after his positive test. Seven days.
Additional personal protective equipment requests by employees have been denied. Until today (Sunday) the warehouse had been ignoring capacity limitations and social distancing measures. People working in the store are sick and can no longer call off. Corona is in that building and shoppers should not be.
Thank you for your time.
That's financial and PR suicide for that store to stay open.
On a large level, of course. But if you have one dopey manager of a single franchise telling someone to report or they're fired, people will report out of fear for their livelihood. Obviously this story showing up in the news and/or Costco's corporate HQ hearing about this will correct the situation almost immediately
A couple of years ago someone in our building potentially could have spread something that no one wanted. Later that day, a Fox 2 news truck was parked outside the building. If you contact the news, they will blow this up.
Obviously youve never worked in food or retail. They can and they will. Perhaps instead of saying you have to come in sick they say come in or you no longer have a job. Its common. Very common.
Idk why you're getting downvoted. No employer can tell and employee they have to work. Fuck all that bullshit.
Lol, have you held a job before? Telling someone they are fired if they don’t come into work is the same thing as telling employees they have to work
The difference is what happens on paper and what happens in the real world.
On paper, no, they cannot tell someone to come into work -- especially now; where I live the governor has issued an executive order against retaliation.
In the real world, retail and restaurants treat people like fucking dogshit. Even if half of what the OP noted is true it's a problem and it's totally believable as I've been on both sides of the fence... going back to the days of when minimum wage was $3.35 an hour and working three jobs to help put me through Michigan...
Now though, if my current employer told me I had to work, I'd tell them to go fuck themselves and I'd be hired by the competition in a new york second. I have that luxury to WFH, get COVID pay, etc.
When I worked hourly, I didn't have that luxury... and shitty hourly managers know how they can take advantage of people. When a lot of hourly workers live paycheck to paycheck they're exposed to the whims of the company.
Do you work in the real world. You have sick time and personal time, depending on your employer. If you don't have enough of either, and you can't get a note from your Dr, you are AWOL. That's just how it works nowadays. Especially an hourly employee at Costco. Although they have always claimed to be fair and provide better working conditions and employee relations than Sam's club.
I work in your world building your fucking university.
And no dont have sick time or personal time. We have health insurance, annuity, pension and a vacation fund. You take off the time you can afford and you can solicit your own work from anybody who wants to employ you. If your sick, or don't feel comfortable with your work environment you don't have to come in. They may bring you your check, sure but they can't make you.
I've never been laid off. I've dragged up and switched companies once in my career. Because they were commiting payroll fraud.
So, think about this for a second. While North Campus is shut down we are at Ford Robotics. While St. Joes is on lockdown we are building temp screening rooms for Trinity health. While some of you fucking fat cats are sitting back collecting a check for doing jack shit and buying your first 9mm and charmin, we are up 100 ft in the air building a hospital in lansing so the Spartans can treat their 3rd degree burns from lighting couches on cedar street.
So fuck off, and fuck your boss.
here's a thought...instead of going off at cyber people on a message board...FIGHT THE MAN...quit that shit job under such life-threatening conditions amidst a virus that makes most people sick... find better work sitting on the couch gettin' PAID!!! join the good life man...why be a servant to such and oppressive institution??? and I hate to say it, but anyone working in service at costco unwilling to say no to your boss...or you'd lose your job...is that job REALLY worth it??? I'd wager there are plenty of options outside that bubble.
I dont work at costco. I enjoy what I do and I'm in the highest paid sector of what I love to do. Union Carpenter till I die. Some people aren't made to sit on the couch. Shit, I even watch football standing up.
So ya, instead of telling people on a cyber message board to potentially give up what they love doing how about you enjoy the good life.
Someone made that couch you're sitting on, and the building you live in,and stocked the shelf you got your groceries from, and farmed the field to get the grains for your cheesy poofs, and those people can have the good life too, and don't have to live job scared.
What world do you live in? This shit happens a million times every day in this country.
You should send that info to Gov. Whitmer.
I assume Costco has a corporate HR hotline type thing like many other large companies do. I'm sure Costco's corporate office would be very interested to hear this
Wow. I thought Costco was supposed to be one of the "good" companies. Can you get the word out via anonymous tip to a tv station or newspaper?
So far as we know it’s this location. I would give it happening elsewhere before casting aspersions across the entire company
This is happening all over, not just retail stores like Costco. Examples:
Delivery drivers and warehouse workers.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/21/business/coronavirus-ups-fedex-xpo-workers.html
“I have been coming in sick because I’m worried that I’ll lose my job or just be punished if I call out,” said Angel Duarte, a package handler at a UPS hub in Tucson, Ariz. “I am 23, and I have no savings, and I have a 4-month-old son.”
Some warehouse workers said supervisors had rebuffed them when they pleaded for bleach, masks, gloves and a ready supply of hand sanitizer. In some facilities, even hand soap and paper towels are scarce, employees said. Employees continue to be jammed shoulder to shoulder along conveyor belts and required to maintain rituals such as security pat-downs.
Airport workers.
Security personnel, gate agents and other employees come in contact with hundreds of travelers a day. Cleaning crews have to mop up bodily fluids such as vomit, mucus and blood. Many of these workers say they lack gloves and respiratory masks as well as the information they need to protect themselves.
"We did not get any training whatsoever," Gomez said. "It's just go clean the airplane. Right now, we hardly have solutions to clean the airplanes with." She said she and her colleagues are not provided with gloves; they are lucky if flight crews can spare a few extra.
You should drop the info to the local news channel. That Charlie whatever guy would love this kind of thing.
No BS News with Charlie Leduff. Listen to today’s podcast, Great show. Owner of Detroit Coney comments on situation facing restaurants and workers, plight of downtown homeless in a ghost town. Detroit jail deputy speaks out on lack of cleaning supplies, PPE ,ongoing unsanitary conditions, no way to test or quarantine inmates. Sinai-Grace Nurse talks of understaffing in emergency dept, lack of supplies to combat COVID. Economics professor does a great job giving us the big picture of what the hell is going on. NO BULLSHIT!!! You won’t get any of this from any 3Letter
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/no-bs-news-hour-with-charlie-leduff/id1435711364?i=1000469141698
Charlie is fucking crazy. So I'm obviously a fan.
He was in the local fox station when I was at Michigan. When I first saw him I though “who is this clown,” but he grew on me.
you can tell he really cares about people and doing the right thing.
Loved his book "Detroit: An American Autopsy"
The audio book is even better with the voice impersonation of Kwame Kilpatrick. It's hilarious.
If true this should get to a newspaper/channel. If not true then what’s your deal?
I bet you don’t work for Costco! Probably for a competitor though.
March 22nd, 2020 at 10:43 PM ^
I bet you're not really Don Brown's Mustache. You probably do not really have a mustache at all.
Just a quick update. I have contacted Costco corporate. Ive also gotten a hold of local news stations and some national journalists. The health department and other government organizations are unreachable on the weekends but Ill attempt them as well tomorrow.
The issue is Costco is making record profits across the nation. They're overlooking safety and other issues and following the dollar signs. An employee died at a Costco corporate HQ in Washington state this week and they didn't even close that building or allow employees to work remotely.
I am far from the only person expressing concerns over this. From the information Ive found we may be the only actual warehouse to have employees test positive and I know a lot of posters on here are in this area so I shared.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/briannasacks/costco-employees-coronavirus-fears
But this is far from an isolated incident.
BuzzFeed is not a reliable news source
They've had multiple Pulitzer noms for their work.
buzzfeednews is very different than buzzfeed
The name association does them no favors though
That doesn’t mean anything. You are very gullible though!
This is probably one of the warehouse managers. Stop hiding in the front office and help the rest of us out Doug!
We have no proof that you are an employee and you make a post slandering a business trying to create hysteria, so you need to understand the skepticism.
The majority of what I posted is public information that is all over the internet and can be verified quite quickly. Ive been proud to work for Costco for over a decade but now theyre risking peoples health.
CDS is the company that does the demos for Costco and 85% of them are over the age of 60. We currently have them walking around amidst the general public wiping things down. It isnt safe. People are already getting sick and it could worsen fast. So have all the skepticism you want Im just hoping making some noise will lead to improved safety concerns and procedures.
This is fucked up. I've shopped there for years instead of Sam's because they paid their employees well, even when the shareholders demanded better returns.
Heads better fucking roll for this.
Stay safe brother.
Pretty scary.
Ladies. Emotions are running a bit high.
Someone with moderating abilities please ban this fool.
#BANSTRONG
#MARCHINGTOABAN
March 22nd, 2020 at 10:02 PM ^
Ok misogynist
I was impressed with the measures the Brighton Costco had made when I was there last week. Signs everywhere to maintain social distance. Yellow tape at checkout to space carts out. Wipes and sanitizer readily available.
They're definitely doing a better job than us. Today is the first day we put down the yellow tape and started enforcing capacity limits and making sure people arent standing back to back all over the place. We stopped providing wipes and sanitizer over a week ago.
If I were at the corporate HQ for Costco, I would get on the horn to that store and rip them a new one, threaten an admin staff overhaul if it didn't stop.
So stupid. The fiance works for a private behavioral needs school that provides for the few surrounding public schools (which are closed totally, obviously). They had all the teachers come in last week to not really do anything they wouldnt be able to do from home, and on top of that were giving a tour to some unknown people. The fiance basically said "look I think it's irresponsible to have everyone here for no real reason plus giving people a tour without even informing us beforehand". You don't have to pay me but I would feel more comfortable staying home." The supervisor got all defensive and pissed of course. She knows no one is banging down the door for her job. She has compiled evidence if she were to lose it though.
Worker protections in this country are a fucking joke. The CEO of Hobby Lobby recently wrote a letter to his employees stating that their stores would stay open because of a vision his wife had from God. This country is nuts.
I'm a Christian (confessional Lutheran), and I don't shove it down others' throats, but I'm not going to hide it either. And it infuriates me to see stuff like this. This is horrible.
I'll bet money that other Christian business owners didn't get visions from God about their jobs, but instead are being a proper witness by following the duty given by God to comply with reasonable mandates from the government, as it says in Romans 13:1-7.
I as a Christian teacher certainly did not receive a vision from God that my school (which has other Christian teachers) was to stay open.
I won't delve deep into theology here, but claiming "personal words from God" is at best questionable, and at worst spiritually harmful. I'm supposed to be adhering to what's already set out in the WRITTEN Word of God, not waiting for "new revelations" that could very well be my own imagination, or worse yet, something from Satan.
PM me if anyone wants to have a conversation about it.
This precisely. It drives me up a wall when someone claims to have had a direct communique from God, especially in response to some type of calamity, disaster, or tragedy. It’s EXTREMELY unlikely and almost certainly the imaginings of that person and only serves to end up hurting the spread of Gods word than helping.
Notice how it’s often from a person in some type of authority position. In those cases, even as a man of God myself, I call BS 100% of the time.
Very well written
Was that before or after they smuggled in those artifacts from Iraq and then lied about it?