Inside One Organization’s Efforts to Create the First National Pharmacy Union
The Covid-19 pandemic greatly expanded the role of pharmacy staff, who suddenly had to take on the responsibility of Covid tests and vaccines in addition to their other tasks. However, even before Covid-19, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians struggled to manage their workload.
“The phone was just ringing all day. … The lady on the phone was like, ‘Is anybody going to answer the damn phone?’ I was like, ‘Ma’am, I’m giving flu shots and shingle shots all day.’ She said, ‘Where’s your help?’ Well, the one help I had just had a mental breakdown so I have no clue,” said Maurice Shaw, a former pharmacist at CVS and Walgreens, in a recent interview.?
Shaw now works as a clinical pharmacist at the University of Illinois Chicago and is a co-founder of the Pharmacy Guild, a union for pharmacy professionals that launched in November in response to working conditions at large pharmacy chains. The organization was formed after a series of walkouts occurred in the fall among Walgreens and CVS employees. It was created in partnership with IAM Healthcare, a union of diverse healthcare professionals, including nurses, medical administrators and lab technicians.?
The Pharmacy Guild aims to be the first national pharmacy union in the U.S. (though there are some regional unions that exist). However, it’s a tall order given that many pharmacists work at large corporations like CVS Health and Walgreens. Shaw is undeterred and believes the effort will be successful.
“Once we get that first set of stores unionized, I think it’s going to be a chain reaction. … I think people really feel like this is the only way,” he declared. “People have reached out to their pharmacy organizations and they feel like [the American Pharmacists Association] has failed them, they feel like their State Board of Pharmacy has failed them and they feel like their state legislators have failed them. So why not try the union?”
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What the Pharmacy Guild wants
What’s ahead for the Pharmacy Guild?
The response from CVS and Walgreens