Walgreens Pharmacy Employees Walkout Planned for This Week

Facts

• This week, pharmacy employees — including pharmacists, technicians, and other staff — at US Walgreens stores are expected to walk off the job.¹
• Some employees will stay away from work for three days, while some are expected to remain out just one day. The labor stoppage is expected to be over on Wednesday.¹
• The employees are trying to draw attention to what they deem as challenging working conditions — including a workload that makes it difficult to correctly fill prescriptions, which they claim, in turn, makes patients less safe.²
• In a statement, Walgreens said it is 'making significant investments' to pay pharmacy employees more and to retain talent.²
• Walgreens employees don't have a union leader to coordinate the walkout or serve as a spokesperson, but organizers say approximately 500 of 9K stores across the US could be affected.³
• The Walgreens walkout comes after CVS pharmacists in the Kansas City area staged two walkouts over two weeks in September as part of a similar protest. Those employees are hopeful CVS will meet their demands.⁴

Sources: ¹Reuters, ²FOX News, ³Daily Mail and ⁴CNN.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by fastcompany.com. Whether it’s Walgreens, CVS, or Kaiser Permanente, workers in the healthcare field have been exploited for too long, and work stoppages might be the only way to get the attention of management. If these companies are serious about safely serving their patients, they’ll take the necessary steps to bolster their staffing and make sure working conditions improve. The Walgreens work stoppage is another example of America's simmering recent labor movements.
• Narrative B, as provided by Newsweek. Of course, management appreciates the unprecedented effort of its employees, especially as things have gotten more difficult because of the COVID pandemic. In order to satisfy worker requests, there should be an ongoing conversation between employees and those in these companies’ boardrooms instead of walkouts that will create long lines and put patients in danger. A labor stoppage is not the answer.