The CVS Pharmacy logo is displayed on a sign above a CVS Health Corp. store in Las Vegas, Nevada, on February 7, 2024.
Patricio T. Fallon | AFP | fake images
Pharmacy staff at two CVS Rhode Island retailers voted to join a new national pharmacy union on Friday, signaling growing momentum in a movement to help thousands of American pharmacy workers address what they allege are unsafe working conditions.
Pharmacy workers at 24-hour locations in Wakefield and Westerly won their union elections, making them the first stores to unionize in CVS's home state, according to a union statement. It comes a month after a CVS Omnicare pharmacy in Las Vegas, which is not customer-facing. — became the first place to join the union, known as The Pharmacy Guild.
The labor group will represent them in negotiations with CVS.
“These are the first brick-and-mortar stores in the CVS model” to join the union, Shane Jerominski, a community pharmacist and co-founder of Pharmacy Guild, told CNBC. “This is really where my heart is… we have all worked to Walgreens or CVS in the classic retail environment, so we all know the working conditions there.”
The two locations consist of nine of the company's approximately 30,000 pharmacists in the U.S., a CVS spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC. About 700 CVS pharmacists are already unionized with other groups, they said.
The spokesperson said the company respects its employees' right to unionize or refrain from doing so. They added that the vote is the first of several steps in the collective bargaining process.
If the National Labor Relations Board confirms the results, “we will negotiate in good faith with the union to try to reach an agreement,” the CVS spokesperson added.
Jerominski and other organizers of a national pharmacy staff strike in the fall partnered with IAM Healthcare (a union representing thousands of healthcare professionals) to launch the Pharmacy Guild in November. That work stoppage included major pharmacy chains such as CVS, Walgreens and ritual of help and brought media attention to workers' concerns.
The Pharmacy Guild aims to help pharmacy staff address what many workers call unsafe staffing levels and increasing workloads across the industry that put both employees and patients at risk. The union is also calling for legislative and regulatory changes to establish higher standards of practice in pharmacies to protect patients.
The unionization effort reflects years of growing discontent among retail pharmacy staff, who say they often struggle with short-staffed teams and ever-increasing job expectations imposed by corporate management. Many employees said the Covid pandemic has only exacerbated those problems, with new tasks like vaccinations and testing putting even more demands on pharmacy staff.
The Pharmacy Guild is seeing momentum in other parts of the country, Jerominski said. He added that there could be more union filings for stores from companies other than CVS in the coming weeks.
