By Maia Anderson | November 19, 2023
The guild was formed in response to a series of walkouts by pharmacy workers at CVS and Walgreens.
Following a series of walkouts by pharmacy workers at retail giants CVS and Walgreens, organizers have formed The Pharmacy Guild, a group meant to help unionize retail pharmacy employees.
Across the US, the workers have long expressed concern over short-staffing and high workloads that they say can jeopardize patient safety. Historically, there’s been no widespread retail pharmacy worker unionization, Shane Jerominski, one of the founding advocates behind the guild, told Healthcare Brew.
“We’re speaking out to help frontline pharmacy professionals organize a national union […] and also trying to organize a group that’s really keyed in on all of the problems facing community pharmacists and retail pharmacy,” Jerominski said.
The guild’s priority is advocating for retail pharmacies to implement staffing and workload standards that ensure pharmacists have time to provide adequate care. It’s not intended just for workers at the “big three” retail pharmacies (CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid); it’s meant for pharmacy workers who feel that being “inadequately staffed” puts “patient safety at risk,” Jerominski said.
Read more at Healthcare-Brew.com