Three-day walkout by CVS, Walgreens staff in US
Three-day walkout by CVS, Walgreens staff in US
Robert Besser
01 Nov 2023, 19:10 GMT+10
- Employees of CVS Health Corp and Walgreens Boots Alliance’s U.S. began a three-day walkout on October 30 to push for improved working conditions and more staff members at their stores.
- One of the triggers is “grossly understaffed” stores where employees have to not fill only prescriptions, but also look at appointments and walk-ins for immunization, he added.
- The strike is also seeking better pay and more consistent hours for technicians who locate, dispense, pack, and label prescribed medication for patients under the supervision of pharmacists.
NEW YORK: Some pharmacy employees of CVS Health Corp and Walgreens Boots Alliance’s U.S. began a three-day walkout this week to push for improved working conditions and more staff members at their stores.
Dubbed “Pharmageddon” on social media, the walkout has already forced the closure of several stores in New York.
In an interview with Reuters, former Walgreens pharmacist Shane Jerominski, one of the organizers of the walkout, said that some 5,000 pharmacy workers would walk out across the three days.
One of the triggers is “grossly understaffed” stores where employees have to not fill only prescriptions, but also look at appointments and walk-ins for immunization, he added.
Jerominski said the strike is also seeking better pay and more consistent hours for technicians who locate, dispense, pack, and label prescribed medication for patients under the supervision of pharmacists.
John August, director of healthcare labor relations at Cornell University, said that as part of their efforts to cut costs after a consolidation in the pharmacy industry, major companies have not employed enough pharmacists and technicians at their stores, leaving staff overworked.
“The pandemic just caused so much additional work and stress that the turnover rates of staff, which were already very high, just became extremely epidemic,” he added.
“The walkout is a sign of a new labor movement where people are organizing on their own without a union,” August said, adding that such walkouts, even though legal, are risky because the staff “do not really have a traditional union to back them up in their strike.”
A CVS spokesperson said its management was connected with their pharmacists to directly address concerns and engage in a “continuous two-way dialogue,” while Walgreens said it has taken steps to help its pharmacy teams “concentrate on providing optimal patient care.”
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