The organizers of a recent walkout of retail pharmacy staff have helped launch a national push to organize those employees. A new partnership between the organizers and IAM Healthcare aims to help pharmacy staff unionize to address what many employees call unsafe working conditions throughout the industry, including at major drugstore chains such as Walgreens and CVS.
The majority of pharmacists and technicians from those chains have no union representation while pharmacy staff from a handful of grocery retailers such as Kroger do. The push to unionize, dubbed “The Pharmacy Guild,” also calls for legislative and regulatory change to establish higher standards of practice in pharmacies to protect patients.
A small number of employees and supporters picketed outside the headquarters of drugstore chain Walgreens during a three-day walkout by pharmacists in Deerfield, Illinois, November 1, 2023.
The Pharmacy Guild hopes to gain 100,000 pharmacists and technicians to fill out a form, and Jerominski predicted that 90% of pharmacists working for Walgreens and CVS will be unionized in five years. Since the organizers have a large reach of over 300,000 followers between the three platforms, they will use it to provide updates on the progress of the unionization effort.
Jerominski called the push for unionization the “next logical step” after the walkout last week and earlier work stoppages by some Walgreens pharmacy staff across the US and CVS employees from the Kansas City area. Jerominski stated, “Everyone has been asking me, what’s next? I think that the time for walkouts is done. I think that in order to effect change from this point, we have to organize. Unionization is not going to change everything, but it’s going to help us secure better working conditions for pharmacists.”
The Pharmacy Guild does not follow the standard method of organizing workers — but Jerominski believes that’s why it will work. “If you want to, all you have to do is fill it out. We’ll do the rest. We’ll take it from there, with the backing from a national union,” Jerominski said.
While both Walgreens and CVS stated that the recent walkout had a minimal impact on their pharmacy operations, the organizers of the walkout hope that the efforts will bring about real change in the industry.