Union Pharmacy Plans Begin After Walkout Ensues Across the Nation

A union pharmacy may be in the works as staff workers temporarily pause their job duties at CVS and Walgreens. With the movement still relatively early in its walkout stage, pharmacy walkout organizers are planning to launch a further national push to unionize pharmacists and technicians.

This union push has been dubbed “The Pharmacy Guild,” and it’s a collaboration between the union organizers and IAM Healthcare, a union for healthcare professionals. In addition to seeking union representation, The Pharmacy Guild also aims to let pharmacy staff address concerns about understaffing and increased workloads in the industry, particularly at major chains like Walgreens and CVS.

According to the official Pharmacy Guild homepage, the three major goals they’ve listed consist of:

• Staffing and workload standards to ensure safe patient care
• Representation and collective bargaining for pharmacy professionals in workplaces across the country
• Legislative and regulatory action to protect patients and advance standards of professional practice

Most CVS and Walgreens pharmacy workers currently lack union representation. In contrast, pharmacy staff at some grocery retailers, such as Kroger, do have it, according to Shane Jerominski, a walkout organizer who is spearheading the national campaign through his pharmacy advocacy platform, The Accidental Pharmacist.

The movement to unionize unrepresented staff contributes to what is already a highly active year for labor movements in the U.S. Last week, both Walgreens and CVS claimed that the recent walkout by their pharmacy staff had a minimal effect on their operations.

The precise number of participants in the recent retail pharmacy walkout remains uncertain, according to the organizers. That said, they conducted a poll on the movement’s dedicated social media channel, which suggested that the participation was significant. The preliminary figures indicate that at least 200 employees from major pharmacy chains like Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid joined in the collective action.