A bunch of pharmacists and technicians at a Walgreens retailer in Vancouver, Washington, are the most recent to file a petition to affix the Pharmacy Guild, which is constructing a nationwide pharmacists’ union. It’s the seventh submitting with the union and the primary at a Walgreens retailer, in accordance with Tuesday’s announcement.

The shop has eight pharmacy technicians and two pharmacists. The staff have been coping with heavy workloads — together with excessive volumes of prescriptions, vaccination appointments and facet duties — and inadequate staffing, the announcement mentioned. These challenges are placing affected person security in danger, the staff argue.

“We care deeply about our sufferers — their well being and security is our high precedence on this effort to unionize,” the employees mentioned in a bunch assertion. “We stand united with a robust majority to create optimistic change. We name on Walgreens to not solely respect our proper to unionize, however to actively work with us to enhance situations for each sufferers and pharmacy professionals.”

The Vancouver employees' complaints are reflective of many Walgreens throughout the nation, mentioned Shane Jerominski, a pharmacist and co-founder of the Pharmacy Guild. He added that whereas there aren't many workers on the retailer, it's “a fairly large operation for one retailer.” The shop's grievance illustrates that the Pharmacy Guild is prepared to help organizations each massive and small.

“It’s not the scale of the operation,” Jerominski mentioned in an interview. “It’s the place pharmacists and technicians really feel unsupported, really feel like they’re being exploited. That’s what the Pharmacy Guild was constructed on, and we’re able to step in and assist them arrange the office for safer situations.”

The petition to affix the Pharmacy Guild was filed with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board, an impartial federal company that enforces U.S. labor legal guidelines. As soon as a petition is filed, the NLRB can set a date for an election, which is able to certify or decertify “a union because the bargaining consultant of a unit of workers,” in accordance with the NLRB web site. If greater than half of the staff vote sure to unionize in the course of the election, they are often represented by the Pharmacy Guild.

Walgreens didn’t reply to a request for remark.

The Pharmacy Guild was shaped in November to fight the working situations confronted by many pharmacists and technicians throughout the nation. It was developed in partnership with IAM Healthcare, a union of various healthcare professionals together with nurses, medical directors and lab technicians.

The opposite shops which have filed with the Pharmacy Guild up to now are CVS or CVS Omnicare areas, together with these close to the corporate’s Rhode Island headquarters. A few of these shops have additionally efficiently gained their elections to unionize, Jerominski mentioned.

Jerominski added that the Pharmacy Guild has “a whole lot of leads” from pharmacies eager about unionizing. It additionally has plenty of mail-order pharmacies in Pennsylvania and California which are within the strategy of signing up.

“It's in every single place,” he mentioned. “It's all companies and all apply settings, as a result of that's a mirrored image of pharmacy. We have now quite a lot of issues in every single place. It's not simply CVS that's having issues proper now. It's not simply Walgreens.”

Photograph credit: Joe Raedle, Getty Pictures