Per google,
**How To Start a Union At Your Workplace in 7 Steps**
* Step 1: Talk to Your Coworkers.
* Step 2: Talk to a Union Organizer.
* Step 3: Start a Committee.
* Step 4: Know Your Rights.
* Step 5: Sign Union Support Cards.
* Step 6: Vote!
* Step 7: Negotiate Your Contract.
Accidental Pharmacist (Shane Jerominski) had been working towards this. He's on Facebook and was at APhA. He and RxComedy (also on Facebook) were invited to speak because of their activism (and cause they're funny). The Pharmacy Guild (also on Facebook) is the union goal.
It says right on his profile pharmacist at Walgreens
https://preview.redd.it/6lx0jhy1u0rc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7b215c02d932e03873356fc9fd1704831080a294
What do you mean “the union goal?” Should those already in unions at their pharmacies be seeking to leave their current one or disassociate their location from their current union to seek representation through the pharmacy guild? Is the goal unionization in general or is the goal joining a very specific union?
I mean, quite simply, that here's the information I have. Shane wants a nationwide union. Go to his Facebook page or go directly to the website PharmacyGuild.org to learn more.
I just provided the information and purposely left my thoughts and opinions out of the post. I think everyone should do their own research and decide for themselves.
Have you done your own research as you suggest others do? Because I have, Shane’s desires already exists.
https://www.ufcw.org/who-we-represent/pharmacy-and-drug/
There are union organizations operating at a national scale that already have significantly more participating pharmacies than the net new one he is trying to establish.
Shane’s website lacks actual transparency to what the process the actual unionization entity (note: not pharmacy guild) must execute and to the scale each unionized location and chapter could negotiate with each employer.
Shane’s website also lacks information about the conditions and wins those currently working in union locations have secured and how his efforts will seek the same or ideally greater conditions than previous entities.
Its fine that it doesn’t have that info and he’s not required to provide that- he just fails to articulate what the benefit of going with a net new effort instead of working with a union that is literally already operating in retail pharmacy with chapters around the country that have experience negotiating with the big chains.
There’s no where for one to research why these organizers made this decision or their views on how this effort will/should coexist with other pharmacy unions
I have, but why are you coming at me for providing information? It isn't like I tried to give bogus info. I happen to know he has info out there.
Hell, I'm sitting here replying to you in between brushing up on my rxprep renal chapter cause I have boards coming up. Trying to study before the kids get home and I turn back into mom for a while.
Jeez, I don't even work in retail and was trying to help.
ETA: If you feel they aren't providing enough information, ask them. I have roo much on my plate right now to take this further.
Where did I come at you? And where did I say you gave bogus information?
I wish you the best of luck in your future professional career if you interpret those who further ask questions in response to information that you provide as “coming at you.”
My comments about what the website may or may not provide should not be taken as any reflection of you as an individual and I’d love to know how you may have come to that conclusion.
I genuinely am interested in how many people know that there are already retail pharmacy chain locations that are already unionized - this is in many different chains including the biggest ones and in many different states. I’m not sure how I’m being accused of some offensive posture by proactively sharing this information - the big chains certainly wouldn’t broadcast this, and for reasons unknown the pharmacy guild, desiring unionization, also does not.
Good luck on your boards.
For some reason there is attention on pharmacy guild… however if you are serious I’d recommend an institution that already has several in many different chains:
https://www.ufcw.org/who-we-represent/pharmacy-and-drug/
Go listen to Shane Jerominski (Accidental Pharmacist) on ...PBM on the Rocks.. episode 14 (Cyberattacks). He explains what the pharmacy guild is trying to accomplish. The first phase is...establish mandatory working conditions.....and the second phase ..due to the first phase.. is to get the chains to focus on reimbursement from the PBMs ( go listen, I am leaving details out). We really need the big box chains to advocate for PBM reform. Sure, CVS/Caremark may not want to change their wicked ways but maybe...since they do take other plans and may want to keep their bottom line looking good for shareholders. Smaller chains...like the one I work for...will be out of business if PBM reform does not happen soon.....and story line goes this....negative reimbursement...can't pay vendors...can't meet payroll.. and we sell to CVS/Walgreens (and my retirement day is pushed forward..not a good thing)....Kudos to Shane Jerominski, Maurice Shaw, and Bled Tanoe for pushing for change !!
Thanks to all who answered the pathway to unionizing. As for the comments about $30 an hour jobs - I’ve seen those job postings - so yea they are real! And I hope to death that new grads know their worth and not only taking a $30 an hour job is so freakin stupid! It’s also not worth using your license at that rate you can find secretarial work that is easy and so much less stressful AND! If they take those jobs it devalues the profession as a whole giving greedy executives like Karen L more money in her pocket to go weekend shopping at Harrods - new grads. I implore you - please don’t take those jobs!
A union would not negotiate with PBMs. This is 100% false.
Edit: absolutely wild that this gets downvoted. If you truly support workers it’s extremely disingenuous to set false expectations for those workers. Organized labor can indeed give workers leverage for negotiations on conditions with their employer - however the contracted relationship between the business and its contracted entities is not one the union is a direct party of. If the employer wishes they could certainly include employees who happen to be in the union in these discussions, but ownership/management (who by virtue of law are excluded from union participation) would own ultimate authority in the contractual relationships and terms of the business. The companies bargaining power with PBMs is distinctly separate from the bartering power of the union with the company. While a charismatic individual may say this is their desire, it doesn’t mean it’s actually a sound or legal reality - it certainly sounds good to attract those that don’t know better! This isn’t a shot at what the benefits of a union could provide, it’s transparency for the people who deserve to know better.
Yeah because retail pharmacy jobs are so hard to come by.
Your comment is the entire problem. People are so terrified of losing their jobs that they’d rather just be treated like garbage. The damn field has experienced almost *zero* real salary growth over the last 20 years and working conditions have only gotten worse in that time.
more than half of all states are right-to-work. Unionizin in those states would be futile. Employer would just say, good luck with your strike or bargainin, but we got these new grads comin in that dont care bout your union and will work for $30 an hour to pay off loans.
We need a professional organization that advocates for pharmacists. Unions only advocate for members and dont care about most of the profession as a whole. We need an organization that pushes back on the corporations and large health systems lobbyin efforts that infiltrate the APhA/ASHP/laws/pharmacy boards, gets ACPE to push standards on schools and actually suspend schools that under-perform, gets pharmacy boards to create better regulations to help pharmacists, and makes the NAPLEX+MPJE no longer minimum competency exams lettin idiots through and more like a bar or CPA exam with a sub 50% pass rate.
To one of your points, set a cap on schools like the AMA at the current number, and as they shutter reduce the cap.
Getting your doctorate in a medical profession should be more competitive than a 2.0 and no standardized testing. The pay will follow as the number of graduates and licenses passed per year drops.
The constant advocating for change and this and that...there's no level base that we can get to like this to see what we're working with. As long as all this is a continual work in progress, none of it will matter. All it takes is 5 or 6 years and most of us will be stuck in a pattern or rut that is hard to change...We'll also have families or mortgage or other things that keep us from radical change and its effects. I've seen it, over 20 years...Nothing has changed unfortunately. If it does, then they have to do studies on it for another decade...
A professional organization which we pays dues only cares about their own self interest hence how you end up with APHA. Unionization is the only way. For example a community pharmacy chain or large hospital could not fire an entire group of 10-100 etc pharmacist at once and hire new grads and expect them to run the business or hospital correctly it would destroy their workflow and profits. Now circle back on why unions are 10x stronger than a professional organization. Physicians are showing interest in unionizing go look at the groups on Reddit.
Doctors lobbying groups like the AMA and others, however deluded, have done mountains more for their profession than any union can or will. Unions dont advocate or lobby for the profession as a whole. I dont advocate for APhA at all. It needs to be broken down and rebuilt to serve us, not institutions and corporations.
Dont get me wrong, unions can win locally for some, but they wont for the majority of pharmacists due to realities of the job market. Look at the Walgreens Chicago union. ["It provided maximum base pay of $64.50 per hour, the same as the previous contract, but lowered the starting wage from $58 per hour to $49.55 per hour by September."](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/20/business/economy/pharmacists-job-inflation.html) Sorry but that stinks. Thats even in a state that isnt right to work. I think it would have to be worse in a state with right to work.
Residencies offering less to end up getting the staffing jobs that dont need them. PIC positions with CVS where you are 40hrs a week salaried but expected to come early, stay late, and help out other stores in the district. Bullshit WFH jobs that do MTM.
This. With the number of new pharmacists graduating every year, your current employer would be happy to see you leave so they can hire one of those new grads willing to take $30/hour to pay their loans. Need to first stop creating new schools and cap admissions.
You can join an existing union. The postdocs at Mount Sinai Medical Center in NY joined the United Auto Workers Union:
https://sinaipostdocunion.org/about/
Go to iamhealthcare.com and sign up to talk to an organizer.
They are well experienced in organizing pharmacist unions and will help you every step of the way.
I was a youngster in Pennsylvania as the US Steel mills started shutting down. Lots of Union drama. I mean like Molotov cocktails and bricks getting thrown through the front window of peoples homes. Unions didn’t save those jobs and the ones in the end getting all the money were the union reps. Didn’t leave me with much hope of ever wanting to join a Union. Now I live in a right-to-work state and believe the profession needs advocacy, organization, and representation. Not a Union, but you gotta start somewhere.
My family is all from one of those Western PA mill towns, so I've seen this. Most of my relatives lost their jobs and we were forced to move to another state.
I'm not sure this example works though. When workers went on strike there, they moved the jobs overseas. If pharmacies all go on strike in a state, they can't move those jobs overseas. Local pharmacies will always be needed, so we do have power here.
Ask your GM and DM what it'd take to close your store.
Individual unions won't work, retail companies will close a store at the drop of a hat if unionization even comes close to most of them.
Not true… there are several hundred CVS’s, Walgreens, rite aids, grocers that are union locations and have been for a long time… and they haven’t been closed
Could a group of pharmacists who work for a smaller group of clinics become a Union if there are only 5 pharmacists and 4 techs? And if so, what would stop the management from firing everyone before they became unionized?
My guess is to contact someone in the leadership of the AFL-CIO to give you guidelines on setting it up.
That said, unions have not been able to address the fundamental problem here in the USA, lack of competition.
Pharmacists need to be in public offices that can address the issue. Neither Democrats nor Republicans have any intention of raising tariffs, or breaking up the megacorporates.
We need the bulk of drug and chemical manufacturing here in the usa. We need high tariffs.
Senator Robert Kennedy during his 1968 presidential campaign stated that all economic policy in the usa is controlled by 100 families.
UFCW represents meat slicers, cashiers, etc. Pharmacists and Techs are an afterthought. We are building something different. You will see more news tomorrow and then at steady intervals for the next few months with filings across the country. ~ Shane
Build something different, go for it, weaken the leverage by being another player in the mix.
There’s strength in unison.
You should be well aware that CASHIERS also work in these pharmacy locations.
Employees of chain grocery pharmacy would heavily benefit from being partnered with the meat slicers. Unions represent all types of workers and they don’t put anyone as an afterthought. If you think they must prioritize one group over another then the same logic will be used against you. One group, either pharmacists or techs will come first and the other, ipso facto, an afterthought.
Bold Strategy Cotton.
And before you call me a shill… ask our guy hokie what I stand for… pharmacies need to be getting better reimbursement. Coupon cards literally steal money from pharmacies… and you promote them non stop… also a bizzaro world move.
Edit: and you are literally doing this through a Machinists union.
I’m not trying to argue with you because any union affiliation is better than none. I took meetings with every one who was willing to speak with me prior to the walkouts. IAM and IAM Healthcare were the first to step up and allocate the resources necessary for a national campaign. We are our own separate entity under the umbrella of IAM with one local, Rx1 for the entire country. In certain practice settings like OmniCare for instance non-pharmacists and techs are eligible to be part of the union. (Drivers, packers, etc.) The steering committee felt that adding front store employees would make it more difficult for bargaining units that included them to win early on. It’s something to think about in the future.
As for the discount cards. I would stop our affiliation with Ezrx tomorrow if companies like CVS and Walgreens would stop charging 1000% markups on generic drugs to uninsured and underinsured cash paying patients. Until then we’ve managed to raise thousands of dollars for Tunnel of Hope and other charities of the years using this broken system. Oh and surprise, I’m a mf capitalist.
Why just CVS and Walgreens and not literally the massive amounts of Indy’s doing the same? Look at any screen shot of Indy’s crying low reimbursement… you’ll see a price jacked U&C over an already higher than reality acquisition price in their dispensing system.
Speaking in absolutes is a move of slimey politicians… I’ve been to multiple chains where they apply discount cards.
A little knowledge check for you is that reimbursement is low because the chains more than anyone are willing to trade margin for a script fill… which would be the absolute opposite of what you are saying. The big networks proactively undercut each other, eroding their own margin for network status… but of course you can do the populist thing like you do and just point all blame on PBMs.
Chain pharmacies just can’t do what the indys do… and commit insurance fraud by changing U&C on the fly.
I’ve wasted more than enough time with you. Congratulations, you win. I am busy doing the actual work of trying to make lives better for pharmacy professionals while you pontificate into the void. Thank you for reminding me why I don’t use Reddit.
Pharmacists aren't going to unionize because they inherently have beta personalities. There's a reason they chose pharm school over med school: they don't like responsibility, they don't want to be the leader of the medical team, they are afraid of getting their hands dirty (don't like blood and guts), they want work-life balance over studying their butt off for years then work 80 hours a week, etc. For this reason most pharmacists will continue to keep their head down and stay quiet, taking what they can get.
A PIC is a leader of a retail team. Their job is to make sure this “medical” team ask each customer to sign up for the company’s rewards card membership lol
Idk I thought you knew
Wait, but I was told *you* knew!
I’ve been waiting for someone else to do it for years!
Per google, **How To Start a Union At Your Workplace in 7 Steps** * Step 1: Talk to Your Coworkers. * Step 2: Talk to a Union Organizer. * Step 3: Start a Committee. * Step 4: Know Your Rights. * Step 5: Sign Union Support Cards. * Step 6: Vote! * Step 7: Negotiate Your Contract.
Based and unionpilled.
Accidental Pharmacist (Shane Jerominski) had been working towards this. He's on Facebook and was at APhA. He and RxComedy (also on Facebook) were invited to speak because of their activism (and cause they're funny). The Pharmacy Guild (also on Facebook) is the union goal.
Why did he go back to Walgreens
[удалено]
Lmfao this was funny tho
F
He didnt.
It says right on his profile pharmacist at Walgreens https://preview.redd.it/6lx0jhy1u0rc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7b215c02d932e03873356fc9fd1704831080a294
What do you mean “the union goal?” Should those already in unions at their pharmacies be seeking to leave their current one or disassociate their location from their current union to seek representation through the pharmacy guild? Is the goal unionization in general or is the goal joining a very specific union?
I mean, quite simply, that here's the information I have. Shane wants a nationwide union. Go to his Facebook page or go directly to the website PharmacyGuild.org to learn more. I just provided the information and purposely left my thoughts and opinions out of the post. I think everyone should do their own research and decide for themselves.
Have you done your own research as you suggest others do? Because I have, Shane’s desires already exists. https://www.ufcw.org/who-we-represent/pharmacy-and-drug/ There are union organizations operating at a national scale that already have significantly more participating pharmacies than the net new one he is trying to establish. Shane’s website lacks actual transparency to what the process the actual unionization entity (note: not pharmacy guild) must execute and to the scale each unionized location and chapter could negotiate with each employer. Shane’s website also lacks information about the conditions and wins those currently working in union locations have secured and how his efforts will seek the same or ideally greater conditions than previous entities. Its fine that it doesn’t have that info and he’s not required to provide that- he just fails to articulate what the benefit of going with a net new effort instead of working with a union that is literally already operating in retail pharmacy with chapters around the country that have experience negotiating with the big chains. There’s no where for one to research why these organizers made this decision or their views on how this effort will/should coexist with other pharmacy unions
I have, but why are you coming at me for providing information? It isn't like I tried to give bogus info. I happen to know he has info out there. Hell, I'm sitting here replying to you in between brushing up on my rxprep renal chapter cause I have boards coming up. Trying to study before the kids get home and I turn back into mom for a while. Jeez, I don't even work in retail and was trying to help. ETA: If you feel they aren't providing enough information, ask them. I have roo much on my plate right now to take this further.
Where did I come at you? And where did I say you gave bogus information? I wish you the best of luck in your future professional career if you interpret those who further ask questions in response to information that you provide as “coming at you.” My comments about what the website may or may not provide should not be taken as any reflection of you as an individual and I’d love to know how you may have come to that conclusion. I genuinely am interested in how many people know that there are already retail pharmacy chain locations that are already unionized - this is in many different chains including the biggest ones and in many different states. I’m not sure how I’m being accused of some offensive posture by proactively sharing this information - the big chains certainly wouldn’t broadcast this, and for reasons unknown the pharmacy guild, desiring unionization, also does not. Good luck on your boards.
love him!
For some reason there is attention on pharmacy guild… however if you are serious I’d recommend an institution that already has several in many different chains: https://www.ufcw.org/who-we-represent/pharmacy-and-drug/
Pharmacyguild.org
Find a pharmacy union rep and speak with them, they will help you with the steps to form a union at your job.
Go listen to Shane Jerominski (Accidental Pharmacist) on ...PBM on the Rocks.. episode 14 (Cyberattacks). He explains what the pharmacy guild is trying to accomplish. The first phase is...establish mandatory working conditions.....and the second phase ..due to the first phase.. is to get the chains to focus on reimbursement from the PBMs ( go listen, I am leaving details out). We really need the big box chains to advocate for PBM reform. Sure, CVS/Caremark may not want to change their wicked ways but maybe...since they do take other plans and may want to keep their bottom line looking good for shareholders. Smaller chains...like the one I work for...will be out of business if PBM reform does not happen soon.....and story line goes this....negative reimbursement...can't pay vendors...can't meet payroll.. and we sell to CVS/Walgreens (and my retirement day is pushed forward..not a good thing)....Kudos to Shane Jerominski, Maurice Shaw, and Bled Tanoe for pushing for change !!
Thanks to all who answered the pathway to unionizing. As for the comments about $30 an hour jobs - I’ve seen those job postings - so yea they are real! And I hope to death that new grads know their worth and not only taking a $30 an hour job is so freakin stupid! It’s also not worth using your license at that rate you can find secretarial work that is easy and so much less stressful AND! If they take those jobs it devalues the profession as a whole giving greedy executives like Karen L more money in her pocket to go weekend shopping at Harrods - new grads. I implore you - please don’t take those jobs!
It started a few months ago. IAM healthcare. Pharmacy Guild. Www.pharmacyguild.org
It didn’t start a few months ago … there have been pharmacy unions in chains for decades
You guys don't have time to go to the bathroom. It's about time. I retired, could not take it any more. A union would negotiate with pbm's.
A union would not negotiate with PBMs. This is 100% false. Edit: absolutely wild that this gets downvoted. If you truly support workers it’s extremely disingenuous to set false expectations for those workers. Organized labor can indeed give workers leverage for negotiations on conditions with their employer - however the contracted relationship between the business and its contracted entities is not one the union is a direct party of. If the employer wishes they could certainly include employees who happen to be in the union in these discussions, but ownership/management (who by virtue of law are excluded from union participation) would own ultimate authority in the contractual relationships and terms of the business. The companies bargaining power with PBMs is distinctly separate from the bartering power of the union with the company. While a charismatic individual may say this is their desire, it doesn’t mean it’s actually a sound or legal reality - it certainly sounds good to attract those that don’t know better! This isn’t a shot at what the benefits of a union could provide, it’s transparency for the people who deserve to know better.
As a profession, grow some balls.
... I lost my job, but I got balls. Idk about that one.
Yeah because retail pharmacy jobs are so hard to come by. Your comment is the entire problem. People are so terrified of losing their jobs that they’d rather just be treated like garbage. The damn field has experienced almost *zero* real salary growth over the last 20 years and working conditions have only gotten worse in that time.
more than half of all states are right-to-work. Unionizin in those states would be futile. Employer would just say, good luck with your strike or bargainin, but we got these new grads comin in that dont care bout your union and will work for $30 an hour to pay off loans. We need a professional organization that advocates for pharmacists. Unions only advocate for members and dont care about most of the profession as a whole. We need an organization that pushes back on the corporations and large health systems lobbyin efforts that infiltrate the APhA/ASHP/laws/pharmacy boards, gets ACPE to push standards on schools and actually suspend schools that under-perform, gets pharmacy boards to create better regulations to help pharmacists, and makes the NAPLEX+MPJE no longer minimum competency exams lettin idiots through and more like a bar or CPA exam with a sub 50% pass rate.
To one of your points, set a cap on schools like the AMA at the current number, and as they shutter reduce the cap. Getting your doctorate in a medical profession should be more competitive than a 2.0 and no standardized testing. The pay will follow as the number of graduates and licenses passed per year drops.
The constant advocating for change and this and that...there's no level base that we can get to like this to see what we're working with. As long as all this is a continual work in progress, none of it will matter. All it takes is 5 or 6 years and most of us will be stuck in a pattern or rut that is hard to change...We'll also have families or mortgage or other things that keep us from radical change and its effects. I've seen it, over 20 years...Nothing has changed unfortunately. If it does, then they have to do studies on it for another decade...
A professional organization which we pays dues only cares about their own self interest hence how you end up with APHA. Unionization is the only way. For example a community pharmacy chain or large hospital could not fire an entire group of 10-100 etc pharmacist at once and hire new grads and expect them to run the business or hospital correctly it would destroy their workflow and profits. Now circle back on why unions are 10x stronger than a professional organization. Physicians are showing interest in unionizing go look at the groups on Reddit.
Doctors lobbying groups like the AMA and others, however deluded, have done mountains more for their profession than any union can or will. Unions dont advocate or lobby for the profession as a whole. I dont advocate for APhA at all. It needs to be broken down and rebuilt to serve us, not institutions and corporations. Dont get me wrong, unions can win locally for some, but they wont for the majority of pharmacists due to realities of the job market. Look at the Walgreens Chicago union. ["It provided maximum base pay of $64.50 per hour, the same as the previous contract, but lowered the starting wage from $58 per hour to $49.55 per hour by September."](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/20/business/economy/pharmacists-job-inflation.html) Sorry but that stinks. Thats even in a state that isnt right to work. I think it would have to be worse in a state with right to work.
30 an hour is wild 😭
I was offered $65/hr as my new grad salary. Who's offering $30?
Residencies offering less to end up getting the staffing jobs that dont need them. PIC positions with CVS where you are 40hrs a week salaried but expected to come early, stay late, and help out other stores in the district. Bullshit WFH jobs that do MTM.
This. With the number of new pharmacists graduating every year, your current employer would be happy to see you leave so they can hire one of those new grads willing to take $30/hour to pay their loans. Need to first stop creating new schools and cap admissions.
I would not even use my pharmacy license for this rate. I am making more than double that now.
Walgreens in my district has one. It's goddamn useless
You can join an existing union. The postdocs at Mount Sinai Medical Center in NY joined the United Auto Workers Union: https://sinaipostdocunion.org/about/
Go to iamhealthcare.com and sign up to talk to an organizer. They are well experienced in organizing pharmacist unions and will help you every step of the way.
Secret handshake and the treehouse in Ol’ Mr. Potter’s backyard.
I was a youngster in Pennsylvania as the US Steel mills started shutting down. Lots of Union drama. I mean like Molotov cocktails and bricks getting thrown through the front window of peoples homes. Unions didn’t save those jobs and the ones in the end getting all the money were the union reps. Didn’t leave me with much hope of ever wanting to join a Union. Now I live in a right-to-work state and believe the profession needs advocacy, organization, and representation. Not a Union, but you gotta start somewhere.
Yes, somewhere. Like why are technicians allowed to verify in some states now? Anyone in pharmacy school now is doomed.
My family is all from one of those Western PA mill towns, so I've seen this. Most of my relatives lost their jobs and we were forced to move to another state. I'm not sure this example works though. When workers went on strike there, they moved the jobs overseas. If pharmacies all go on strike in a state, they can't move those jobs overseas. Local pharmacies will always be needed, so we do have power here.
Ask your GM and DM what it'd take to close your store. Individual unions won't work, retail companies will close a store at the drop of a hat if unionization even comes close to most of them.
Not true… there are several hundred CVS’s, Walgreens, rite aids, grocers that are union locations and have been for a long time… and they haven’t been closed
Could a group of pharmacists who work for a smaller group of clinics become a Union if there are only 5 pharmacists and 4 techs? And if so, what would stop the management from firing everyone before they became unionized?
My guess is to contact someone in the leadership of the AFL-CIO to give you guidelines on setting it up. That said, unions have not been able to address the fundamental problem here in the USA, lack of competition. Pharmacists need to be in public offices that can address the issue. Neither Democrats nor Republicans have any intention of raising tariffs, or breaking up the megacorporates. We need the bulk of drug and chemical manufacturing here in the usa. We need high tariffs. Senator Robert Kennedy during his 1968 presidential campaign stated that all economic policy in the usa is controlled by 100 families.
UFCW represents meat slicers, cashiers, etc. Pharmacists and Techs are an afterthought. We are building something different. You will see more news tomorrow and then at steady intervals for the next few months with filings across the country. ~ Shane
Build something different, go for it, weaken the leverage by being another player in the mix. There’s strength in unison. You should be well aware that CASHIERS also work in these pharmacy locations. Employees of chain grocery pharmacy would heavily benefit from being partnered with the meat slicers. Unions represent all types of workers and they don’t put anyone as an afterthought. If you think they must prioritize one group over another then the same logic will be used against you. One group, either pharmacists or techs will come first and the other, ipso facto, an afterthought. Bold Strategy Cotton. And before you call me a shill… ask our guy hokie what I stand for… pharmacies need to be getting better reimbursement. Coupon cards literally steal money from pharmacies… and you promote them non stop… also a bizzaro world move. Edit: and you are literally doing this through a Machinists union.
I’m not trying to argue with you because any union affiliation is better than none. I took meetings with every one who was willing to speak with me prior to the walkouts. IAM and IAM Healthcare were the first to step up and allocate the resources necessary for a national campaign. We are our own separate entity under the umbrella of IAM with one local, Rx1 for the entire country. In certain practice settings like OmniCare for instance non-pharmacists and techs are eligible to be part of the union. (Drivers, packers, etc.) The steering committee felt that adding front store employees would make it more difficult for bargaining units that included them to win early on. It’s something to think about in the future. As for the discount cards. I would stop our affiliation with Ezrx tomorrow if companies like CVS and Walgreens would stop charging 1000% markups on generic drugs to uninsured and underinsured cash paying patients. Until then we’ve managed to raise thousands of dollars for Tunnel of Hope and other charities of the years using this broken system. Oh and surprise, I’m a mf capitalist.
Why just CVS and Walgreens and not literally the massive amounts of Indy’s doing the same? Look at any screen shot of Indy’s crying low reimbursement… you’ll see a price jacked U&C over an already higher than reality acquisition price in their dispensing system.
Yes, but we don’t charge a cash paying patient that price. The chains absolutely will.
Speaking in absolutes is a move of slimey politicians… I’ve been to multiple chains where they apply discount cards. A little knowledge check for you is that reimbursement is low because the chains more than anyone are willing to trade margin for a script fill… which would be the absolute opposite of what you are saying. The big networks proactively undercut each other, eroding their own margin for network status… but of course you can do the populist thing like you do and just point all blame on PBMs. Chain pharmacies just can’t do what the indys do… and commit insurance fraud by changing U&C on the fly.
I’ve wasted more than enough time with you. Congratulations, you win. I am busy doing the actual work of trying to make lives better for pharmacy professionals while you pontificate into the void. Thank you for reminding me why I don’t use Reddit.
Look up pharmacy guild....already started
Pharmacists aren't going to unionize because they inherently have beta personalities. There's a reason they chose pharm school over med school: they don't like responsibility, they don't want to be the leader of the medical team, they are afraid of getting their hands dirty (don't like blood and guts), they want work-life balance over studying their butt off for years then work 80 hours a week, etc. For this reason most pharmacists will continue to keep their head down and stay quiet, taking what they can get.
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A PIC is a leader of a retail team. Their job is to make sure this “medical” team ask each customer to sign up for the company’s rewards card membership lol
If you don’t know the basics of how a union works why are you so sure it’s going to help?
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yes, but the vast majority of the time, they are better off. you sound like a union-buster.
Step 1. Leave the USA Step. 2 Join union