An indication advertises COVID-19 (coronavirus) vaccine shots at a Walgreens Pharmacy in Somerville, Massachusetts, August 14, 2023.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
Some pharmacy staff from Walgreens and other drugstore chains are planning to walk out next week in the newest pushback against what they call unsafe working conditions that put each employees and patients in danger.
Organizers of the trouble and a few pharmacy employees told CNBC they hope the work stoppage will push firms to make meaningful changes to deal with the long-standing grievances of many retail pharmacy staff, who’ve complained about having to grapple with what they describe as understaffed teams, insufficient pay and increasing work expectations imposed by corporate management.
The walkout, which organizers have dubbed “Pharmageddon,” will occur Monday through Wednesday across different retail pharmacy locations nationwide, organizers of the trouble told CNBC.
An organizer named Shane Jerominski, an independent pharmacist who used to work for Walgreens, said the walkout could tentatively affect a whole bunch of stores across different chains.
Jerominski, who’s a pharmacy labor advocate, said organizers still do not have a definitive count of employees who will take part in the trouble. But he noted that the “bulk” of those that have signaled they plan to walk out are staff from Walgreens — who laid the groundwork for the initiative — and employees from CVS and Rite Aid.
Organizers are also planning to carry rallies outside a couple of locations in several parts of the country, in line with Jerominski and a second person involved with the planning, who requested to stay anonymous for fear of retaliation.
Jerominski and the person, who’s a former pharmacy manager at supermarket chain Publix, also said they’re considering a push for unionization of pharmacy staff who’re currently not represented. There are not any concrete agreements to maneuver forward to hitch a labor group.
A spokesperson for Walgreens said the corporate recognizes the “incredible work our pharmacists and technicians do day by day” and that it has taken several steps in its pharmacies “to be certain that our teams can think about providing optimal patient care.”
The corporate’s ongoing efforts are focused on how it will possibly recruit, retain and reward pharmacy staff, the spokesperson said. They added that Walgreens has improved technology and centralized many operations to assist maintain appropriate workloads in pharmacies.
A CVS spokesperson said in an announcement that the corporate is not seeing any “unusual activity regarding unplanned pharmacy closures or pharmacist walkouts currently.”
The spokesperson added that the corporate is engaging with staff to directly address any concerns they might need, and is targeted on developing a “sustainable, scalable motion plan” to support each pharmacists and customers.
A spokesperson for Rite Aid didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment on the upcoming walkout.
The work stoppage will come weeks after some pharmacy staff from Walgreens locations across the country, and CVS stores within the Kansas City area, engaged in separate walkouts over working conditions. Notably, CVS management apologized to Kansas City pharmacy staff and committed to a series of improvements — including adding staff and paid additional time — after the walkouts there ended.
The demonstrations at pharmacies add to what has been probably the most lively years for the U.S. labor movement in recent history.
CVS and Walgreens were the biggest pharmacies within the U.S. based on prescription drug market share in 2022. Each chains operate around 9,000 retail store locations across the country.
CVS has greater than 30,000 pharmacists and 70,000 pharmacy technicians, while rival Walgreens has greater than 86,000 health-care service providers, including pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and other positions. CVS pharmacists make $61.44 an hour on average, while Walgreens pharmacists make $53.85 per hour on average, in line with employment website Indeed.
Who’s participating within the pharmacy walkouts?
As pharmacy staff prepare to walk off the job, Jerominski and the previous Publix pharmacy manager said some independent and retail pharmacy locations have committed to staying open next week to supply patients with service options.
Most of the pharmacy staff who’re all in favour of walking out look like from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, California, Texas, Michigan, Missouri and Indiana, in line with Jerominski.
Two pharmacy staff members from Walgreens and one other two from CVS, all of whom asked to stay anonymous for fear of retribution, told CNBC that they plan to walk out. One CVS store manager, who also asked to stay anonymous for a similar reason, said they’d participate if their location’s pharmacist does.
A CVS location in Latest York, US, on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023.
Stephanie Keith | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Other employees don’t intend to walk out, even in the event that they support the broader effort to secure higher working conditions.
A CVS worker, who was the essential organizer of the Kansas City area walkouts, said the CVS pharmacy staff in that region that they represent should not inclined to participate. The worker, who asked to stay anonymous for fear of retribution, said CVS has negotiated with Kansas City staff “in good faith and made good on commitments up to now,” so walking out again could be “going backwards.”
A CVS pharmacy manager, who works in a special a part of the country, said they’ve seen positive changes at their very own store following the Kansas City walkouts.
However the pharmacy manager, who also requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, said they’ll take part in someday of the upcoming walkout — and hope their colleagues will too — because they imagine employees need to copy the solidarity seen in Kansas City “on a bigger scale” to make sure CVS continues to hearken to their concerns.
Why are pharmacy staff walking out?
For years, many retail pharmacy employees have complained that firms corresponding to Walgreens and CVS are placing unreasonable performance demands on employees, without providing enough staffing or resources for them to soundly and responsibly execute tasks.
They imagine the difficulty got worse in the course of the Covid pandemic, when pharmacists and technicians were also required to manage back-to-back tests and vaccinations on top of their normal duties.
Many pharmacy staff told CNBC that a diminishing variety of staff should juggle ever-increasing each day tasks, which they said can force errors and put patients susceptible to serious harm.
“It boils right down to us not being as attentive as we have to be relating to ensuring people get the appropriate medicines or ensuring patients are properly educated and assisted,” a CVS pharmacist said.
Roughly 100,000 prescription errors are voluntarily reported to the Food and Drug Administration annually. Between 7,000 and 9,000 people within the U.S. die every 12 months as a consequence of medication errors.
Some employees said the working conditions also weigh on their mental and physical health. Many staffers described feeling burnt out by their workloads.
Along with filling and verifying prescriptions, pharmacy employees often should juggle patient phone calls, administer vaccines every quarter-hour, resolve issues with insurance firms and doctors, perform rapid Covid and flu tests and take care of in-store customers.
“We come home and you possibly can’t even consider doing other things since you’re just so exhausted,” a Walgreens pharmacy technician told CNBC, likening their work shift to a marathon. “I have been falling asleep just sitting down.”
Latest vaccine COMIRNATY® (COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) by Pfizer, available at CVS Pharmacy in Eagle Rock, CA.
Irfan Khan | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
Some pharmacy staff told CNBC that company-imposed performance metrics, corresponding to filling a selected variety of prescriptions a day or administering a certain variety of vaccines, add much more pressure on them.
Jerominski, the organizer and pharmacy labor advocate, claimed immunizations have turn out to be a chief priority for retail pharmacy chains since the margins on vaccines are significantly higher than the typical prescription.
The CVS spokesperson said the corporate has reduced the variety of metrics it uses lately, but noted the data “gleaned from safety and quality metrics provides us with a clearer picture of what is working and where improvements could also be needed.”
Meanwhile, Walgreens announced the elimination of performance-based metrics last 12 months, making it the one drugstore chain to accomplish that.
Nevertheless, some Walgreens pharmacy staff told CNBC that the corporate continues to push their stores to hit performance goals for tasks like verifying prescriptions. Walgreens has denied worker claims that those metrics still exist.
The previous Publix pharmacy manager claimed that those forms of working conditions are why few people need to work for big retail drugstore chains.
What else are pharmacy staff hoping for?
Unionization is “one hugely essential piece of this process,” regardless of which existing labor union steps as much as represent pharmacy employees who aren’t currently represented, Jerominski said.
He noted the overwhelming majority of pharmacists and technicians from Walgreens and CVS don’t have any union representation, while pharmacy staff from a handful of grocery retailers corresponding to Kroger do.
Jerominski said he has organized a fundraiser for a national push to unionize, which had collected nearly $60,000 as of Friday. Organizers have been in talks with multiple existing unions over the past two months, but there is no such thing as a concrete agreement yet to maneuver forward, he added.
Jerominski said the organizations include IAM Healthcare, a union representing 1000’s of pros within the health-care industry, and the United Food and Business Staff International Union, which represents food, retail and health-care staff across the U.S. and Canada.
IAM Healthcare didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment, while UFCW has expressed its support for the recent walkouts staged by Walgreens and CVS pharmacy staff.
People make their way near a Walgreens pharmacy in Latest York City, March 9, 2023.
Leonardo Munoz | Corbis News | Getty Images
Some pharmacy employees also told CNBC they hope the upcoming walkout will help patients higher understand the conditions employees are working in and why they might result in longer wait times, medication errors or similar issues.
One Walgreens pharmacist said they imagine patients are understandably upset when they cannot pick up their medications in a fast and seamless way. Nevertheless, it will possibly be emotionally taxing for workers once they should take care of patients who get aggressive or, in rare cases, violent, the pharmacist said.
Similarly, the CVS store manager said they hope the walkout will make patients more understanding.
“On the very least, I hope this ends in one customer that may are available in and say, ‘Hey, I get it. I will be right here and I will be patient,'” the CVS store manager said. “If it changes one customer from coming in an immediately cussing and screaming at myself — even when it’s rightfully so — then it’s absolutely price it.”