Push to unionize U.S. pharmacies gets boost in Redlands

Dozens of employees at a CVS specialty pharmacy in Redlands filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board seeking to hold a union election.

The decision last week to organize by 135 workers at the pharmacy that provides medications to patients with complex and chronic conditions is the largest such move in a broader campaign to unionize pharmacy workers across the U.S. by the Pharmacy Guild, a labor group that was launched in March. The Redlands CVS is also the first workplace in California to join the campaign.

In a statement, the guild said employees at the Redlands pharmacy, who often handle medications with strict temperature controls and short shelf lives, are being pressured to cut corners in ways that compromise patient care. Their patients rely on medications for serious conditions, including cancer and autoimmune diseases, the union said.

“This is incredibly specialized work that takes extreme care to fill for our patients. We are unionizing to make sure safety is always put above profits,” said Tarun Dhiman, a pharmacist who has worked at the pharmacy for more than 10 years, according to a news release by the Pharmacy Guild. “We see this as an opportunity to stand up for our patients and advocate for them.”

A national effort that began last year to unionize in the face of what pharmacists have described as worsening conditions inside CVS and other chains including Walgreens and Rite Aid picked up speed in March, when workers at a CVS Omnicare pharmacy in Las Vegas filed a petition with the labor board to hold an election to join the guild. Since then, a total of seven pharmacies scattered across states including Nevada, Washington and Rhode Island have voted to join the union.

CVS spokesperson Amy Thibault said the company respects Redlands facility employees’ right to unionize but prefers to resolve issues with employees without the presence of a union.

“We’ll continue to work closely and collaboratively with all our colleagues to work through any concerns they have,” Thibault said in an emailed statement.

For years, retail pharmacists working for large chains have complained about insufficient staffing levels that they say force a dwindling number of workers to handle an increasing number of prescriptions, vaccinations and other tasks. The high-pressure workloads intensified during the pandemic, when pharmacists also were required to administer COVID-19 tests and vaccinations, said Lannie Duong, co-founder of the Pharmacy Guild. Pharmacy workers in Kansas and Missouri staged walkouts last year to bring attention to the issue.

“Pharmacy technicians are going home and wondering if they made a mistake that could cost a patient their life,” Duong said. Unmanageable workloads “is a nationwide issue. It’s not specific to just community pharmacy or specialty pharmacies. It is across the board, the entire industry. Our highest concern is patient safety.”

The Pharmacy Guild is an offshoot of the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents tens of thousands of healthcare workers.

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A Times investigation last year highlighted the issue of overworked pharmacists, finding that most mistakes were made at national chains where a pharmacist may fill hundreds of prescriptions during a shift, while juggling other tasks such as calling doctors’ offices to confirm prescriptions. California pharmacies make an estimated 5 million errors every year, according to the state’s Board of Pharmacy.

CVS workers in Southern California who are represented by a local chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers union also are ramping up their activity this week with a call for a boycott of CVS’ pharmacies in Long Beach and Anaheim. The union, which plans to hold a rally in Long Beach on Monday, said CVS pharmacy employees have been at the bargaining table for three months with little movement on issues of livable wages and better benefits.

Healthcare benefits have been a major sticking point with the union, which claims the insurance CVS offers is inadequate and unaffordable for most employees, according to the union.

“CVS says it’s a healthcare company, one with a ‘heart,’ but we don’t see them prioritizing health or heart anywhere in how CVS treats its workers, customers and patients,” Andrea Zinder, president of UFCW Local 324 said in a news release from the union last month.

Thibault, the CVS spokesperson, said the company has met with the union five times to hash out new contracts and has made progress toward tentative agreements.

She said the company is “confident we can reach an agreement that supports workplace safety, appropriate staffing and competitive wages and benefits.”