Dive Brief:
- Unionized CVS pharmacists in three states overwhelmingly voted to approve a strike sanction late last week over what they say are unsafe staffing levels and taxing workloads. It’s the first of two approvals needed before employees can actually walk off work.
- Workers at six stores approved the strike sanction by 90.3% in Rhode Island, where CVS is headquartered, 96.7% in California and 100% in Arizona. The Pharmacy Guild, the union representing the CVS employees, says it’s spent two years fighting for a contract with the company that includes staffing protections and more support for pharmacists.
- CVS argues that it’s made significant investments in pharmacy staffing and resources, and that workers represented by the union make up less than 1% of its roughly 90,000 pharmacy employees.
Dive Insight:
Employees at retail pharmacy chains have been ringing warning bells about understaffing for years, arguing that shortages are contributing to unsafe workplaces and poorer services for patients.
The situation was exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, as they were asked to take on more tasks like vaccinations, helping patients navigate insurance, coordinating with physicians and supervising technicians — all while continuing to move prescriptions, and largely without extra help, pharmacists say.
CVS and other major chains say they’ve increased hiring efforts, hiked wages, improved technology and eliminated metrics putting stress on workers. But those actions haven’t moved the needle, according to Chris Eggeman, a pharmacist at a CVS store in Wakefield, RI.
“We’ve seen a steady decline in working conditions, mainly staffing,” Eggeman, who’s been a pharmacist for 12 years, said. “You see staffing go down, while responsibilities go up. So more work with less help. And this sort of came to a breaking point with COVID.”
The No. 1 priority for CVS pharmacists like Eggeman represented by the Pharmacy Guild, a bargaining unit formed by national healthcare union IAM Healthcare, is better staffing.
They’re also seeking the creation of a professional practice committee comprised of Pharmacy Guild leaders and CVS executives to oversee changes to the company’s pharmacy model.
“We want to do more. But we want to feel like we’re well supported and we’re not rushing through things for the sake of profit,” Eggeman said.
Staffing levels at CVS pharmacies are tailored to the needs of specific stores, according to Roslyn Guarino, CVS’ senior manager of corporate communications.
The company routinely invests in support for its workers, including enhancing recruitment, strengthening training programs and streamlining the pharmacy workflow, she added, noting that CVS has received an “outpouring of positive feedback” from pharmacists about the changes, including a new workload sharing model and pharmacy phone system.
“We’re committed to ensuring there are appropriate levels of staffing and resources at our pharmacies,” Guraino said. “All these investments have had a meaningful, positive impact on the working environment in our pharmacies and enable our pharmacy teams to better focus on patient care.”
Guraino said that CVS has engaged in good faith negotiations with the Pharmacy Guild on initial collective bargaining agreements for more than a year.
However, the union has accused CVS of tactics like delaying and refusing to negotiate with certain bargaining units. Eggeman said unionized pharmacists are prepared to authorize a strike if CVS doesn’t work with them on their demands.
“I don’t think any healthcare worker wants to strike. This really is entirely on CVS to do the right thing. It’s completely avoidable. We’re not asking for much,” he said.
CVS said services at its stores will be unaffected in event of a strike.
CVS is one of the largest healthcare companies in the U.S., with more than $400 billion in annual revenue from its national health insurer Aetna, major pharmacy benefits manager Caremark and network of more than 9,000 pharmacies dotting communities across the U.S.
Around 85% of Americans live within 10 miles of a CVS pharmacy, according to the company.
However, its pharmacies have struggled amid larger challenges facing pharmacy operators, including flatlining reimbursement rates from payers, higher labor costs, lower consumer demand for frontstore merchandise and rising competition, including from disruptors like Amazon.
CVS’ scale and vertical integration have helped it ride those headwinds out. But the company has also placed more stress on its pharmacy employees to perform in the face of tightening margins, according to the Pharmacy Guild.
In late 2023, pharmacy workers at major retail chains, including CVS, staged a walk-out to call for better working conditions, a movement called “pharmageddon.”
And in 2024, CVS paid Ohio $1.5 million in penalties — the largest fine ever imposed by the state board — after regulators found numerous safety concerns and potential legal violations at CVS stores, including insufficient staffing, dispensing errors and prescription delays.
