#PizzaIsNotWorking: Inside the Pharmacist Rebellion at CVS and Walgreens

[douglas9]

Pharmacists Planning Nationwide Walkout on December 20th

Nationwide, pharmacists are planning a walkout on Monday, December 20th, to draw attention to the understaffing widespread among pharmacy workers and also pharmacy technicians’ low pay.

The action is being organized primarily by pharmacy technicians Facebook group #PizzaIsNotWorking (a reference to how employers give free pizza to placate employees), which has over 45,000 members nationwide.



https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/pizzaisnotworking-inside-the-pharmacist

[Magoo48]

1. Rebellion is an grossly inappropriate word to use here.

Try: action, demands, desire to bargain, request……….

Solution: strong union, strong union, strong union.

[jimfields33]

3. Why would a pharmacist work at Walgreens

Do they think they are getting 6 figure salaries. There are numerous places to work at a pharmacy and they chose Walgreens? I guess I don’t understand their career plan.

[IronLionZion]

6. If better places are hiring

then they might switch jobs just like millions of other Americans.

There are Walgreens, CVS, RiteAid, etc. on every corner in many cities so they probably have the most jobs.

[KPN]

20. The Rite Aid in my town has had horrible problems keeping

it’’ pharmacy operating the past 4 months. They have lost at least a couple of their pharmacists for one reason or another and can’t find pharmacists to replace them except on a here and there fill-in basis. Their hours are subsequently unreliable and people have been finding it impossible to get a prescription filled through them timely or even close.

There are also two local semi-department stores (same company/name) that have closed their pharmacies in the past few months here. As a result, our Safeway pharmacies (there are two) seem to always have long lines of 25 or 30 people waiting to pickup prescriptions.

Something strange is going on with pharmacies. Don’t know the whole story, but it’s crazy.

[druidity33]

9. "numerous places to work"?

Like a CVS? Or a WalMart? Or a Rite Aid? I can't think of a single independent pharmacy within an hour's drive from my house...

[left-of-center2012]

13. "a single independent pharmacy"

There's one a block from me.

[Orrex]

14. Does it pay six figures?

With a competitive benefits package and incentives to match those of nationwide chain pharmacies?

If so, terrific! That would make it an extreme outlier.

[efhmc]

17. There is one in my small town besides Walmart and it employs exactly two people.

Unions are the ONLY thing which actually helps workers.

[lastlib]

4. THIS!

strong union, strong union, strong union.
It bears repeating.

[ck4829]

5. Why not both?

[Captain Zero]

7. Mass Action

Another good term.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

25. Would pharmacists qualify to unionize?

Aren't they management?

[Jimbo S]

32. I would think so

I think they would be considered 'professional staff'. So a gray area if they can organize.

[Auggie]

2. Related news: received an email from the Amazon.com Pharmacy yesterday...

they're open for business, though their prices aren't that competitive. Still, you know, the convenience thing.

The online Rx business will probably replace the brick and mortar business. Most of them, at least.

[LymphocyteLover]

10. How do they control who gets the drugs though? That's something I never understood.

[Wounded Bear]

11. VA has been mailing my scrips for years...

Note: they do have restrictions on some things, like opioids and other pain killers, but I get mine on a regular basis.

[LymphocyteLover]

34. I guess they really on the security of people not tampering with US mail but I guess

I don't get how they control the initial order and know who it really is but I guess they have a way

[Wounded Bear]

36. My PCP prescribes, and I'm registered with them...

[quakerboy]

35. How does any current establishment control that?

[LymphocyteLover]

37. they typically ask for name and birthdate, sometimes ID

[quakerboy]

38. And how is that any different?

Sometimes they ask for id. Sometimes they just check it out to your (self proclaimed) partner, or your housemate or your kindly neighbor, or someone claiming to be your adult child helping out.

Setting aside the Dejoy issue for a moment.. is a random person claiming to be helping you more reliable than the USPS?

[LymphocyteLover]

39. it's not so much the delivery as the ordering that I wonder about

how they control prescriptions and that maybe someone claims to be someone else, which is easier online

[quakerboy]

40. In the age of cheap printers, laminators, etc

Its surely not hard to claim to be someone else online or elsewhere. Its rare that even the most diligent pharmacist clerk gives any of the various forms of ID more than a cursory glance. I just looked, seems you can get an ID card maker on amazon for $599. More than I expected, but still not much, really.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. We should accept the slant some blogger gives to the issue? "Rebellion"?

[Alexander Of Assyria]

15. I like it. Let them eat pizza!, say the plutocrats...Not much has changed on that.

[DeSmet]

12. I know a pharmacist...

recently lured back to their former employer (another huge national pharmacy). Over $100K. 60 hr. work week. Then off a week. Not horrible. I had to ask myself how much mark up the drug store has in order to pay that much for this pharmacist and the others working there alongside them. They are moving a lot of medicine. Shop yourself around.
Be ready to take the position elsewhere.
The real criminals are Big Pharma and the Washington enablers refusing to reign in the obscene greed.

[PatrickforB]

16. Yep. It is a squeeze. You know what needs to go? Excessive corporate profits.

Last edited Thu Dec 16, 2021, 01:09 PM - Edit history (1)

Because right now, and since the MI Supreme Court ruling against Henry Ford in 1919, we have done corporate business under a doctrine called 'primacy of the shareholder.'

This means that profits are king. Period. Profits are more important than workers, than safety, than consumers, than the community, than the environment. It's all about shareholder profits. Tax loopholes allowing executive compensation to be deducted have contributed to stratospheric 'salaries' for CEOs.

And, hey, if you are a CEO of a publicly held company, and you are doing your job well, you:
For Workers
1. Bust the union, if there is one, first thing.
2. Participate in wage theft, if you can.
3. Cut hours so you won't have to give your workforce benefits.
4. Steal back the pensions, if the workers have them.
5. Compromise safety on the workplace floor.

For Consumers
1. Cut cost of sales by using inferior parts.
2. Cut the size of packaging and charge the same amount or more.
3. Compromise product safety until paying out claims exceeds the cost of fixing the problem.

For the Community and Environment
1. Foul the environment whenever you can get away with it, and if caught try to pass the cost of cleanup to taxpayers.
2. Contribute to politicians who will 'owe you' and vote against regulation and for tax cuts.

This is why we have what we have right now. The doctrine of shareholder primacy. Replace that with a stakeholder system where the interests of workers, consumers, communities and the environment are held EQUAL to the interests of shareholders, cap C-Suite pay to no more than 10 times the worker on the floor, and impose a fairer corporate tax so that corporations are paying in more like 35% of the federal government's tax revenue instead of the current 6.8% (while individual taxpayers, like the workers, are currently paying in 86% - reduce that down to about 45%), beef up regulations that ensure quality, worker and consumer safety, and limit environmental polluting, and impose a wealth tax to eliminate billionaires and...

VIOLA!!!!

We have enough money for Medicare for all Americans including dental care, vision care and prescription drugs, expanded Social Security, affordable debt-free college, infrastructure improvements, improving our K-12 system, and even a guaranteed minimum income.

Result: A society where people aren't stressed out by lack of healthcare, crummy working conditions or grinding poverty, and where more people have 'enough.'

[bbgrunt]

18. great post!

[druidity33]

19. This should be an OP!

Let's move from shareholders to stakeholders! I like it!

K&R

[KPN]

23. This

[KPN]

22. Awesome post Patrick ... as are many of yours.

Thank you for taking the time to post a remarkably instructive and compelling post.

[BlueIdaho]

24. Please post this as an OP

This is too important to get lost in one thread.

[Jimbo S]

33. Internalize the profits

Externalize the costs (environmental, health insurance, etc) to the public.

[SunSeeker]

21. I love the new strength workers are showing.

My local trash collectors went on strike last Thursday and today the trash company caved and gave them what what they wanted. Our trash collectors are in the Teamsters Union, which knows how to do a strike!

[ancianita]

26. Good. They resist corporate models of salaried employees that show corporate contempt for humans.

[GB_RN]

27. Pizza Is A Favorite For Nursing Management...

To give to us nursing staff. Yeah, I've gotta agree that #PizzaIsNotWorking.

[Cozmo]

28. This is a Catastrophe!

Not only are pharmacies understaffed, they are not able to get necessary drugs in the store for the consumer. For the past 6 months, my monthly prescriptions are not in stock. I have to call around to multiple pharmacies to see if they have the drugs, then I have to call my doctor to tell him where to phone in the prescription. Since these medications are not transferable from one Walgreens to another, this exercise can prove fruitless. There is not enough staff to answer phones, so you are on hold or get disconnected repeatedly. Last month I had to call around for my medication. I found a pharmacy that had it, but by the time I reached my doctor's office the pharmacy had run out of the medication. The whole process had to be repeated. This has happened on weekends many times and no matter how I try to be proactive and handle the issue in advance, the challenge is proving to be hopeless

One Friday at 5 pm, I called my Walgreens only to find out the the entire staff at the pharmacy had walked out because they were understaffed. So people who needed the their medication on that day because they take certain prescriptions that cannot be filled until that very day, went without. I've had a good relationship with my pharmacist and truly believe that the staff is facing issues that need to be resolved by management ASAP. This is a stressful business and management needs to support it's workers and thereby support it's customers.

[Tommymac]

29. Solidarity. nt

[BlueIdaho]

30. My dad was a pharmacist back in the good old days.

He actually owned his business. It was hard work - often returning to the pharmacy in the evening or on a Sunday to fill a prescription someone needed ASAP, but that was his choice and we had a comfortable life. I remember him talking about the “Big Box” store pharmacies that were wiping out small pharmacies all over town and how poorly they treated their staff. He often wondered how anyone could raise a family on what they were paid.

Today’s pharmacists aren’t so lucky - even so called “drugstores” treat their professional staff like crap as they make their money on the front end of the store.

[douglas9]

31. A plea for John Oliver to do an expose on working conditions in retail pharmacy

Hello all,

We are tired. We are worried sick for our patients. We have been pushed past the brink of exhaustion. It has always been rough working for these corporations, but COVID-19 has made it unbearable. Job dissatisfaction among pharmacists and technicians is at an all-time high. We are a subjugated workforce and it’s time for change.

It is my opinion that press involvement is the best method of achieving the change we so desperately desire. I believe that the perfect candidate to make a difference is the late-night talk show host John Oliver as he has done awesome pieces on worker’s rights issues and public health concerns. It is my hope that he and his team catch wind of this petition and address the following in a future expose:

DISMAL WORKING CONDITIONS:

We are subject to long working hours (and consequent punishment for working overtime), minimal lunch/bathroom breaks, chronic short-staffing, and the tyranny of higher-ups imposing unreasonable performance metrics (including but not limited to the number of inoculations we administer, making phone calls to patients, the expedience with which prescriptions are filled, and so on). We are unable to properly meet the needs of our patients given the enormous pressures we are subject to.


https://www.change.org/p/a-plea-for-john-oliver-to-do-an-expose-on-working-conditions-in-retail-pharmacy