A national walkout of pharmacy staff members who say their chain's working conditions imperil the safety of customers and employees began Monday. CNN reported that some Walgreens stores in Arizona, Washington, Massachusetts, and Oregon had shut their pharmacies, while social media posts reported closures elsewhere. Other stores in the nation's second-biggest retail pharmacy chain were operating with reduced staffs, per USA Today. The walkouts are planned to run through Wednesday and could affect hundreds of stores.
A company spokesman called the impact so far minimal but declined to say how many stores had closed or employees had walked off the job. Some stores said they were operating with just their pharmacy's drive-thru windows, while others planned to close early, per CNN. The movement began a few weeks ago when pharmacy employees at some CVS stores in Kansas City held a walkout, expressing similar concerns. Employees at neither chain are unionized; the plans were hatched on a subreddit for pharmacy workers, per the Washington Post.
Michael Hogue of American Pharmacists Association said both companies are having trouble hiring enough pharmacists and technicians because of their high-stress environment and a lack of support. An organizer of the Walgreens walkout told the Post that the demands on understaffed teams of pharmacists, technicians, and support workers are making it difficult to do their jobs responsibly and safely; they're administering vaccines while trying to catch up on hundreds of backlogged prescriptions. "When you're a pharmacist, a missed letter or a number that's wrong in a prescription could kill somebody," the organizer said. Walgreens said the company recognizes the unprecedent pressures of the past few years and is working to improve the situation. (More Walgreens stories.)
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