TO CVS The Omnicare pharmacy in Las Vegas has become the first location to join a new national pharmacy union, a milestone for organizers trying to help thousands of American pharmacy workers address what they call unsafe working conditions.
Nearly 30 pharmacy employees at CVS' Omnicare branch in Las Vegas won their union election Thursday by a landslide margin of 87% to 13%, according to a news release from the union. Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians fill prescriptions for seniors and other vulnerable patients in long-term care facilities throughout Nevada.
Those workers now join the Pharmacy Guild, which will represent them in labor negotiations with CVS.
“We're going to try to get the best contract in the industry for these people who have trusted our union to represent them. It's a historic and very decisive victory,” Shane Jerominski, a community pharmacist and co-founder of the Pharmacy Guild, told CNBC. .
Jerominski and other organizers of a recent national pharmacy staff strike partnered with IAM Healthcare (a union representing thousands of healthcare professionals) to launch the Pharmacy Guild in November. That work stoppage in late October, which organizers called “Pharmageddon,” included major pharmacy chains such as CVS, Walgreens and ritual of helpdrawing media attention to the extent of workers' concerns.
Like the strike effort, the Pharmacy Guild aims to help pharmacy staff address what many employees call unsafe staffing levels and increasing workloads across the industry that put both employees at risk. like the patients. The union also calls for legislative and regulatory changes to establish higher standards of practice in pharmacies to protect patients.
The unionization effort is the culmination of years of growing discontent among retail pharmacy staff, who often face understaffed teams and ever-increasing job expectations imposed by corporate management. The Covid pandemic only exacerbated those problems, as new tasks like testing and vaccination put even more demands on pharmacists and technicians.
In a statement, a CVS Health spokesperson said the company respects its employees' right to unionize or refrain from doing so, including the decision of Omnicare Las Vegas workers to elect union representation. The company added that it will work “closely and collaboratively” with its employees to address their current and future concerns and is “committed to providing a positive and rewarding work environment.”
Omnicare, acquired by CVS in 2015, is not a public pharmacy like most of the chain's nearly 10,000 locations. There are Omnicare pharmacies in 49 states, according to the CVS website.
But Omnicare and other pharmacies share the same problems ranging from staffing levels to low starting pay for technicians, Jerominski said.
“It's not specific to Omnicare, the issues they were expressing were the same ones I hear across the country. It's ubiquitous across all the major chains,” Jerominski said. “You can only ask a company to support you for so long… This is why the strikes happened. Finally they said, 'No, we're going to get the help we demand.'”
The Pharmacy Guild will now work toward a union contract with CVS to address the concerns of Omnicare workers in Las Vegas. Jerominski said those employees want consistent work schedules that guarantee pharmacy technicians 40 hours a week year-round.
“You can't retain people with a skill set and a family, especially with the level of stress that this job has, if they're not even guaranteed their 40 hours,” Jerominski told CNBC.
The Pharmacy Guild is seeing momentum in other parts of the country. Pharmacy staff at two retail stores in Rhode Island have officially confirmed that they have applied to the union to unionize, according to Jerominski.
CVS headquarters is based in the state.
