- Some pharmacy workers at Walgreens and other U.S. drugstore chains plan to stage a nationwide strike Monday through Wednesday.
- The action, which organizers have dubbed “Pharmageddon,” is the latest push against what pharmacists and technicians say are unsafe working conditions that endanger both employees and patients.
- Organizers also plan to hold rallies outside some locations in different parts of the country and are considering unionizing pharmacy staff, who are currently unrepresented.
A sign promotes COVID-19 (coronavirus) vaccinations at a Walgreens pharmacy in Somerville, Massachusetts, on August 14, 2023.
Brian Snyder | Portal
Some pharmacy workers at Walgreens and other drugstore chains plan to walk off the job next week in the latest push against what they call unsafe working conditions that endanger both employees and patients.
The organizers of the campaign and some pharmacy employees told CNBC they hope the work stoppage will prompt companies to make meaningful changes to address long-standing discontent among many retail pharmacy employees who have complained about having to deal with the , as they call it, having to deal with understaffed teams. inadequate pay and increasing work expectations from management.
The strike, which organizers have dubbed “Pharmageddon,” will take place Monday through Wednesday at various retail pharmacies across the country, organizers of the action told CNBC.
An organizer named Shane Jerominski, an independent pharmacist who formerly worked for Walgreens, said the strike could likely affect hundreds of stores across multiple chains.
Jerominski, who advocates for work at the pharmacy, said organizers have not yet made a final decision Number of employees who will take part in the campaign. But he pointed out that the “majority” of those who have signaled they want out are employees of Walgreens – which laid the groundwork for the initiative – and employees of CVS and Rite Aid.
Organizers also plan to hold rallies outside a few locations in different parts of the country, according to Jerominski and a second person involved in the planning who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
Jerominski and the person, a former pharmacy manager for the Publix supermarket chain, also said they are considering a push to unionize pharmacy staff, who are currently unrepresented. There are no specific agreements to join a working group.
A Walgreens spokesperson said the company recognizes the “incredible work our pharmacists and technicians do every day” and has taken several steps across its pharmacies “to ensure our teams can focus on providing optimal patient care.”
The company’s ongoing efforts are focused on how it can recruit, retain and compensate pharmacy staff, the spokesman said. They added that Walgreens has improved technology and centralized many operations to maintain an appropriate workload at its pharmacies.
A CVS spokesperson said in a statement that the company is currently not seeing any “unusual activity related to unplanned pharmacy closures or pharmacist strikes.”
The spokesperson added that the company is working with employees to address any concerns directly and is focused on developing a “sustainable, scalable action plan” to support both pharmacists and customers.
A spokesman for Rite Aid did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the impending strike.
The walkout comes weeks after some pharmacy employees at Walgreens locations across the country and CVS stores in the Kansas City area staged separate walkouts over working conditions. Specifically, CVS management apologized to pharmacy staff in Kansas City and committed to a series of improvements – including staffing increases and overtime pay – after the strikes there ended.
The demonstrations outside pharmacies add to one of the most active years for the U.S. labor movement in recent history.
CVS and Walgreens were the largest pharmacies in the United States in terms of prescription drug market share in 2022. Both chains operate approximately 9,000 retail locations nationwide.
CVS has more than 30,000 pharmacists and 70,000 pharmacy technicians, while competitor Walgreens has more than 86,000 health care providers, including pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and other positions. According to employment website Indeed, CVS pharmacists earn an average of $61.44 per hour, while Walgreens pharmacists earn an average of $53.85 per hour.
As pharmacy workers prepare to leave their jobs, Jerominski and the former Publix pharmacy manager said some independent and retail pharmacies have committed to remaining open next week to provide service options to patients.
According to Jerominski, many of the pharmacy employees interested in leaving appear to be from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, California, Texas, Michigan, Missouri and Indiana.
Two pharmacy employees from Walgreens and two others from CVS, all of whom wished to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, told CNBC that they plan to leave the pharmacy. A CVS store manager, who also asked to remain anonymous for the same reason, said he would participate if his location’s pharmacist did so.
A CVS location in New York, USA, on Thursday, February 9, 2023.
Stephanie Keith | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Other employees have no intention of leaving the company, even if they support the broader effort to improve working conditions.
A CVS employee who was the lead organizer of the Kansas City area walkouts said they represent CVS pharmacy staff in that region are not willing to participate. The employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said CVS has “negotiated in good faith” with Kansas City employees and has so far kept its commitments, so leaving again would be “a step backwards.”
A CVS pharmacy manager who works in another part of the country said he has seen positive changes at his own store following the walkouts in Kansas City.
But the pharmacy manager, who also requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, said they will attend a day of the upcoming strike – and hope their colleagues will too – because they believe the employees in Kansas City observed solidarity needs to be replicated “on a larger scale” to ensure CVS continues to listen to their concerns.
For years, many retail pharmacy employees have complained that companies like Walgreens and CVS place unreasonable performance demands on their employees without providing them with enough staff or resources to perform their jobs safely and responsibly.
They believe the problem worsened during the Covid pandemic, when pharmacists and technicians also had to carry out back-to-back tests and vaccinations in addition to their normal duties.
Many pharmacy workers told CNBC that fewer workers are having to juggle ever-larger daily tasks, which they say can lead to errors and put patients at risk of serious harm.
“It comes down to us not being as vigilant as we need to be when it comes to making sure people are getting the right medications or that patients are receiving appropriate education and support,” a CVS pharmacist said.
Around 100,000 prescription errors are voluntary reported annually to the Food and Drug Administration. Each year between 7,000 and 9,000 people die in the United States due to medication errors.
Some employees said the working conditions also took a toll on their mental and physical health. Many employees reported feeling burned out due to their workload.
In addition to filling and checking prescriptions, pharmacy employees often also have to juggle patient calls, administer vaccinations every 15 minutes, resolve issues with insurance companies and doctors, administer rapid Covid and flu tests, and tend to in-store customers.
“We come home and you can’t even think about doing other things because you’re just so exhausted,” a Walgreens pharmacy technician told CNBC, comparing her work shift to a marathon. “I fell asleep sitting up.”
New vaccine COMIRNATY® (COVID-19 vaccine, mRNA) from Pfizer available at CVS Pharmacy in Eagle Rock, California.
Irfan Khan | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
Some pharmacy employees told CNBC that company-mandated performance metrics, such as filling a certain number of prescriptions per day or administering a certain number of vaccines, would add even more pressure.
Jerominski, the pharmacy organizer and advocate, claimed vaccinations have become a key priority for retail pharmacy chains because margins on vaccines are significantly higher than on the average prescription.
The CVS spokesman said the company has reduced the number of metrics it uses in recent years, but noted that the information “was derived from safety and quality metrics, giving us a clearer picture of what is working and where improvements may be needed.” are”.
Meanwhile, Walgreens announced last year that it would eliminate performance-based metrics, becoming the only drugstore chain to do so.
However, some Walgreens pharmacy employees told CNBC that the company continues to push its stores to meet performance goals for tasks such as checking prescriptions. Walgreens has denied claims from employees that these metrics still exist.
The former Publix pharmacy manager claimed that such working conditions were the reason few people wanted to work for large drugstore chains.
Unionization is “an extremely important part of this process,” regardless of which existing union works to represent currently unrepresented pharmacy workers, Jerominski said.
He noted that the vast majority of pharmacists and technicians at Walgreens and CVS do not have union representation, while pharmacy employees at a few grocery retailers, such as Kroger, do not have union representation.
Jerominski said he organized a fundraiser for a statewide union organizing drive that had raised nearly $60,000 as of Friday. Organizers have been in talks with several existing unions over the past two months, but there is no concrete agreement yet to move forward, he added.
Jerominski said the organizations include IAM Healthcare, a union that represents thousands of professionals in the health care industry, and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents food, retail and health care workers in the U.S. and Canada.
IAM Healthcare did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while UFCW expressed support for recent walkouts by pharmacy workers at Walgreens and CVS.
People make their way near a Walgreens pharmacy in New York City, March 9, 2023.
Leonardo Munoz | Corbis news | Getty Images
Some pharmacy workers also told CNBC that they hope the upcoming strike will help patients better understand the conditions under which employees work and why it can lead to longer wait times, medication errors or similar problems.
A Walgreens pharmacist said he believes patients are understandably upset when they can’t pick up their medications quickly and smoothly. However, it can be emotionally stressful for employees when they deal with patients who become aggressive or, in rare cases, violent, the pharmacist said.
Likewise, the CVS store manager said he hoped the strike would lead to more understanding among patients.
“At least I hope this leads to a customer coming in and saying, ‘Hey, I understand. I’ll be right here and I’ll be patient,'” the CVS store manager said. “If it results in a customer not immediately coming in and cursing and yelling at me – even if they’re right to do so – then it’s definitely worth it.”