CVS Pharmacists Demand “Safe Staffing Levels, Realistic Workloads” - Company Refutes Claims
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CVS Pharmacists Demand “Safe Staffing Levels, Realistic Workloads” - Company Refutes Claims
In response, CVS refuted a number of the union claims.
"Under immense time pressures set by grueling schedules, pharmacists are currently expected to spend less than 1 minute reviewing each prescription that comes through their system," the Guild said it heard from members.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThey added that "an estimated 1.5 million Americans are harmed each year by medication errors, often linked to overworked pharmacy staff" and that "the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) estimates that 7,000-9,000 Americans die every year as a result of medication errors."
The Guild continued, "Pharmacists and technicians across the country are fighting to seek to secure safe staffing measures and improve patient care from CVS Pharmacy. At the same time, the Pharmacy Guild/IAM is fighting blatant union-busting tactics that CVS is using to delay recognizing bargaining with pharmacist units and settling contracts with unionized pharmacy professionals across the country."
"CVS Pharmacy is currently withholding annual raises from The Pharmacy Guild/IAM union members in Rhode Island, Nevada, and California, along with additional stall tactics that CVS is using against organizing pharmacy professionals across the United States. Under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), it's illegal for employers to retaliate against workers for union activity or discriminate in pay, hours, or other conditions of employment to discourage union membership," the Guild continued. "If an employer refuses to give a raise or holds back scheduled increases because a worker joined or is organizing a union, that's considered an unfair labor practice."
“As a pharmacist, my top priority is and will always be the patient— by stalling, CVS is delaying earnest discussions of actual improvements to patient care that we as the pharmacy professionals know will help,” said Christopher Eggeman, a pharmacist at the 24-hour CVS Pharmacy in Wakefield, RI, one of the first locations to unionize with The Pharmacy Guild.
CVS Responds
On Thursday, CVS responded to the union claims with the following statement emailed to GoLocal:
We’ve been negotiating an initial collective bargaining agreement in good faith with The Pharmacy Guild for nearly a year and will continue to do so. There have been no layoffs of any retail colleagues in Rhode Island this year, and the Pharmacy Guild’s claims of job reductions in retaliation for union activity are 100% false.
We’re committed to ensuring there are appropriate levels of staffing and resources at our pharmacies. We regularly make investments in our CVS Pharmacy locations – in Rhode Island and nationwide – to help ensure our teams are supported and can deliver excellent service and care to our patients. Ongoing actions we’ve taken include scheduling additional support, enhancing recruitment and hiring, strengthening training programs, and introducing innovative tools to support workload and workflow.
In fact, we’ve been receiving an outpouring of positive feedback from our pharmacy colleagues about new technology we’ve rolled out – like our dynamic workload sharing model and our new pharmacy phone system – which have given them more time to spend directly with their patients. 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. Claims that pharmacists are required to spend “less than a minute reviewing each prescription” are not true.
Patient safety is our highest priority, and any claims otherwise are untrue. Millions of patients trust us with their health, and we’re passionate about delivering high quality care. We dispense millions of prescriptions at our more than 9,000 CVS Pharmacy locations each year, as well as administer vaccinations, answer medication questions, and provide counsel and advice. Our more than 30,000 CVS pharmacists approach this responsibility with seriousness and dedication, and we work hard to provide care for our pharmacy patients. We have an excellent safety record, and we’re committed to continually improving on it.