A group of pharmacists and technicians at a Walgreens in Vancouver, Washington are formally seeking union representation, becoming the first workplace in the Pacific Northwest to publicly join a new national push to organize pharmacy workers.
The Pharmacy Guild, a new union spearheading the effort, announced Tuesday that the pharmacy workers at the store filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to hold a vote on representation. The Vancouver Walgreens is now the seventh workplace organized by The Pharmacy Guild, according to the union. Founded last November, the union grew out of pharmacy staff walkouts over what it has characterized as grinding and unfair demands large chains have imposed on workers.
The news is significant because it comes at a time of rapid transformation for retail pharmacies, which often offer access to limited but needed care to members of their community. Increasingly, pharmacy chains are being absorbed into large corporate entities, even as independent pharmacies rapidly disappear. Pharmacy workers say these changes are coming at the expense of patient care. Efforts to organize other stores in Oregon and Washington are already underway, according to the union.
An online filing shows that the 10 workers at the Walgreens store on NE 139th Street submitted the petition on Aug. 9.
A press release from The Pharmacy Guild stated that the workers wanted union representation for “safe patient care, safe working conditions, and dignity.”
“This is the beginning of a movement, we hope. Because right now regular pharmacies across the country are understaffed and employees are exposed for corporate profitability.”
Workers at the Vancouver Walgreens reported “heavy workloads with inadequate staffing,” as well as “higher prescription volumes, vaccination appointments” and other tasks that mean longer wait times for patients, according to the press release.
“We are united with a strong majority to make positive change,” the workers said in a group statement. “We call on Walgreens to not only respect our rights to unionize, but to actively work with us to improve conditions for both patients and pharmacy professionals.”
Walgreens spokesman Fraser Engerman told The Lund Report in an email that the company respects the rights of its employees to choose to be represented by a union.
He added that the company continues “to believe the best way to maintain a positive environment is through the direct relationship between our team members and their managers, who are striving every day to achieve our shared purpose of serving our communities and reimagining local healthcare.”
“We are fully committed to ensuring our team members’ contributions are acknowledged and rewarded, including with competitive pay and benefits,” he wrote.
‘This is the beginning of a movement, we hope’
Shane Jerominski, a southern California pharmacist and co-founder of The Pharmacy Guild, told The Lund Report that the eight pharmacy technicians and two pharmacists at the Vancouver Walgreens are seeking union representation to address issues he said are familiar to pharmacy professionals elsewhere.
“This is the beginning of a movement, we hope,” he said. “Because right now regular pharmacies across the country are understaffed and employees are exposed for corporate profitability.”
Jerominski helped organize pharmacy staff walkouts at Walgreens and CVS last fall to protest working conditions. From the walkouts came an effort to formally organize pharmacy workers into unions that is being supported by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM).
Other workplaces organized by the Pharmacy Guild are located in Rhode Island and Nevada. The union operates as an affiliate of IAM Healthcare, which represents more than 12,000 health care workers, including clinicians, technicians and caregivers.
Some pharmacy technicians are represented by United Food and Commercial Workers and other unions. Jerominski said that pharmacists and other affiliated workers need a union for their unique challenges.
Other pharmacy workers at Walgreens and other chains scattered across the country are also in the process of seeking union representation by The Pharmacy Guild, Jerominski said. But he said the pharmacy professionals in Vancouver were willing to be the first group to attempt to form a union at a Walgreens store, which he said will attract attention from the company and others.
“There are lots of eyes on them,” said Jerominski.
Earlier this year, workers at Omnicare pharmacy (an affiliate of CVS) in Las Vegas became the first to file for union representation by The Pharmacy Guild. Jerominski said the company resisted the effort, sending its legal counsel to the location for months. The workers still voted for union representation.
Employers can voluntarily recognize a union, which the Vancouver pharmacy workers asked Walgreens to do. When the company did not respond, the workers filed a petition for an election.
Elections for union representation are typically held six weeks after employees at a workplace file a petition with the National Labor Relations Board.
