Pharmacist Eddie Morales is leading the charge to unionize in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Jersey. For more information, go to www.cvsworker.com. Contact Eddie at edmrph@hotmail.com for information on unionization initiatives and activities in other

Eddie Morales, RPh

Eddie MoralesThere has been talk of unionization for years now among pharmacists, but so far, it has been only that - talk. What makes the union talk going on now any different? Why is it now more important than ever to seek out a union? Why should we even bother to join a union?

	For one thing, the pharmacy industry is getting larger, and therefore, more out of our control. As chains strive to merge or to be the largest or to become No. 1, they have turned the "profession" of pharmacy into the "job" of pharmacy, and we are letting it happen.

	It is easy to see that an oligarchy can be just as dangerous as a monopoly. Key Performance Metrics (KPM) constitute the driving force behind this phenomenon, because they tell corporate headquarters exactly what it needs to know in order to expand the chain.

See also: Key performance metrics and age discrimination in pharmacy

	Corporations need brutal numbers, to which they can peg the minimum number of technician hours, less pharmacist overlap, increased workload, and increased managerial tasks, and they need to accomplish these goals by forcing pharmacists to work as many extra hours without compensation as possible.

	Does being the No. 1 chain really call for mistreating pharmacists? Does being the No. 1 chain justify the disrespect pharmacists are getting across this country? I once overheard one pharmacy supervisor tell another, “I expect my pharmacy managers to put in 50 to 60 hours a week.”

	In the past, such disrespect and abuse have gone unnoticed (or been ignored) by politicians, pharmacy boards, and the public. In the past, one of pharmacists’ major problems has been lack of public awareness of working conditions in the pharmacy. Until relatively recently, social media were not available to get the word out.

See also: Pharmacists' futures and the math behind unionization

	Now pharmacists have a fighting chance. FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, Blogs, YouTube, and phone cameras now make it easy to report what is going on in chain-store pharmacies.

	The public has been unaware of what is happening to pharmacists. Through public media, we can make it known, and politicians and boards of pharmacy will have no choice but to take notice. A news item can be posted on public media faster than conventional television or newspaper outlets can report it, and practically everyone now has a phone with which to record what is happening.

	The pharmacist is like an ostrich, with its head buried in a hole in the sand, and the managers are the ones digging the holes when and where they see fit.

	Pharmacists are a busy lot. They seldom have time to do the research or get the information they need to better their circumstances from within the corporate structure. Managers are trained to keep pharmacists busy with other matters and do so with impunity, up to and including threatening pharmacists’ livelihoods.

	I believe that pharmacists are finally starting to get their heads out of the managerial abyss. Pharmacists are realizing that they are in serious trouble and they are looking for the facts. They can no longer afford to keep their heads buried in the sand.

	If you are going to work in such a hostile environment, why not be compensated for it? Start with time-and-a-half for any hours worked over 40 hours. Claim mandatory scheduled lunch breaks and pay increases based on contract. Go off salaried status and assume hourly paid status.

	 These things would allow for a limit on the number of prescriptions a pharmacist can safely fill during an eight-hour work shift (set by the BOP) and would allow pharmacists to choose the length of a shift they would like to work.

	Here are some of the things I - and other pharmacy watchers - have been warning about for years.

	1. Pharmacy schools will graduate record numbers of pharmacists starting 2016.

	2. Salary entry caps could be set at $40.00 or less for newly hired pharmacists.

	3. If they want to be hired in retail, future pharmacists will be required to make business courses part of their PharmD degrees.

	4. Pharmacists will continue to be randomly fired "at will" to make room for younger pharmacists. (I once heard one district manager tell another, “I don’t want any pharmacist over 28 working for me.”)

	5. Tech-Check-Tech will replace the checking pharmacist.

	6. Eventually self-checking software may replace the need for many technicians, sending the prescription directly to print-ready and directly to automated filling robots, with something like a highly advanced Script Pro in every pharmacy.

	7. Once e-prescribing reaches 100% in all states, self-checking software will eliminate the need for the pharmacist to check the prescription.

	8. For the first time in the history of pharmacy, pharmacists may not be able to find jobs or will be terminated in droves.

	I predicted these things years ago, and no one listened. I have also pointed out that provider status may be no better for you than "at will" status; that pharmacists will be offered less money, and they’ll have to take it in order to remain employed; and that older pharmacists will be first fired and then told that they can reapply - for less money and fewer benefits - but with no guarantee that a position will be available. Sound familiar?
	 

	Every piece of information I have gathered about the chain pharmacy industry has convinced me that pharmacists need to unionize.

	Joining a union will give you seniority, so that when it is time to downsize - and it 

 happen, sooner or later - corporations will have to use the "last hired, first fired" criterion for terminating pharmacists.

	This will give you considerable stability in the workplace and will restore to pharmacists the status they once had. Pharmacists want respect. The chains are not giving it.

	My last article has convinced me many pharmacists are ready to unionize, as I have found out through the emails I have received so far. I have heard from pharmacists in 27 states, all telling me how much they believe in the necessity for unions.

	Times are changing. Our survival may rest upon our joining an organization, such as the IAMAW Union, which has connections in all 50 states. If you do not want to find yourself on the outside looking in, contact Tony Walter at 

	If you think times are bad now, worse times may be creeping up on you.

	If corporations have their way, that PharmD degree will one day require you to have a minor in business administration, which one chain is testing now through a pharmacy school in Pennsylvania.

	Once that degree makes all pharmacists managers, pharmacists will be exempt from joining a union. And you know what that means.

is leading the charge to unionize in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Jersey. For more information, go to

for information on unionization initiatives and activities in other states.

Articles

Pharmacists need to unionize. You've heard all the reasons. Here's another one -- and it's time-sensitive.

Pharmacists and unionization: It’s later than you think

Eddie MoralesWe all know the issues encountered by pharmacists working in chain pharmacies. Twelve-hour workdays or longer, no meal or bathroom breaks, no opportunity to sit during work hours, insufficient tech staffing; ever-increasing demands to meet metrics at the expense of patient safety - this is just the tip of the iceberg; the list goes on and on. For some graphic examples of pharmacists’ working condition, go to 

. (This is a pharmacists’ site and is not owned by or affiliated with CVS).

	Decades have passed without remedy. To obtain any relief from intractable working conditions, pharmacists will have to join together. This means unionization.

	The problem is, the deck is stacked against the pharmacist the moment the word “union” comes up. The danger of punitive retaliation and possible job loss is real. Not knowing whether they can trust the people around them, and with mortgages, families, and futures on the line, pharmacists don’t even say the word “union” out loud, much less do anything about the problems we all face.

	If you can’t trust the pharmacy supervisor, the district manager, the regional manager, HR, the ethics line, or your corporation’s open-door policy, where do you go to air your complaints?

	The logical route is to go to your state National Labor Relations Board, and that’s what I did, only to find out eventually that although a corporation may use immoral, unethical, and unfair methods to keep pharmacists in check or to terminate them, such actions are not necessarily illegal. If you are an “at will” employee, as I am, you can be hired or fired as the corporation sees fit.

	What bothers me most is the way some managers go about firing pharmacists. Key Performance Metrics, which help the corporation, are a double-edged blade, often used to discipline pharmacists for not meeting the often-unattainable scores demanded by management.

	Corporations frequently employ management by intimidation. And in getting rid of pharmacists, they may see no obligation to abide by the “last hired, first fired” rule.

	I got a hint of this from someone posting at 

 creates the possibility that deadwood will never get out and professional, capable pharmacists will be the first out.”

	I’d like to know the criteria corporations are using to establish that a pharmacist is unprofessional, incapable, and deadwood.

	On October 28, 2014, I met with Tony Walter, representative of the IAMAW Union (

). I was looking for information that might be helpful to CVS employees.

	Imagine my surprise when he showed me this from the CVS website (go to 

http://www.cvshealth.com/about-us/corporate-responsibility/2014-interactive-csr-report

, click on the 2013 report at the top of the right-hand menu, and scroll down to page 53 of the pdf):

We have professional and productive relationships with our union colleagues and their representatives, and recognize the rights of our employees to decide whether or not to join a union – which is included in our company policies.”

	I tasked Tony Walter whether we might be able to get some help from the Connecticut Board of Pharmacy. During a lengthy discussion, he made it clear that in the past, a national director of pharmacy, a vice president of pharmacy services, a pharmacy regulatory affairs manager, and a quality assurance director of one or more of the five major chains have chaired or led discussions held by the Board of Pharmacy.

	I then recalled that when I applied for my license in Connecticut in 2007, one of the board members of the Connecticut Board of Pharmacy who interviewed me eventually turned out to be my pharmacy supervisor. So I certainly wasn’t going to take my grievances against CVS to the Connecticut Board of Pharmacy.

	Every piece of information I gathered while I was trying to find out whether pharmacists had anywhere to go with their problems proved to me that pharmacists have nowhere to go. This left only one choice.

See also: New mission statement for pharmacists

	The stage has now been set for unionization, and the curtain has gone up. Staff pharmacists in the small Shaws-Osco Pharmacy chain in Maine have joined the Teamsters Union Local NO. 340.

See also: Maine staff pharmacists join Teamsters

	This tells us that even pharmacists in small chain pharmacies are dealing with the problems that pharmacists in big chains are having. The difference is, they chose to do something about it. This should encourage us all to do the same.

	Will it suffice for one chain alone to unionize? No. Unionization should occur across all chains. Pharmacists working for CVS, Walgreens, Rite-Aid, Target, and Wal-Mart should put aside competitive aspects of the profession and come together to get all retail chains unionized, not just in one state but throughout every state in the Union.

	The oppressive working conditions present in chain pharmacies constitute a nationwide epidemic, so we need to seek a nationwide resolution to this problem. If pharmacists in every chain pharmacy across America come together as a united group to unionize, we can take back the profession we signed up for. Even if you’re not in favor of the union, you must be in favor of that.

	Not convinced? Think about it like this.

	Let’s suppose a chain pharmacy is a rotten apple, and the union is a rotten orange. If it means:

	· I get off salaried status and become an hourly employee who’s paid time-and-a-half for any time worked over 40 hours;

	· I get to take a regularly scheduled lunch break;

	· I get sick days I can actually use even if I’m not sick;

	· I get the appropriate technician help I need;

	· The technician gets a salary comparable to the national norm;

	· I get a technician during all hours the store is open;

	· I get a night technician if I’m working overnights; and

	· I get to check prescriptions undisturbed, so I don’t make an error that could kill a patient -

	This last concern, about prescription errors, is the one that scares me the most. I refuse to be the bullet in the chamber of the gun that may one day kill my patient and ruin my life and the lives of that patient’s loved ones. Kill a patient with a bullet or a pill, the end result is the same. That patient is dead.

	Right now, in Connecticut, something is being done that has never been done before.

	The Connecticut Pharmacists Association, with the help of UCONN’s pharmacy department, has asked the Connecticut Board of Pharmacy to form a task force to bring CVS, Walgreens, Rite-Aid, Target, and Wal-Mart to a meeting to address the problems pharmacists in Connecticut are having with the Key Performance Metrics, among other issues.

	If this meeting comes to pass and if we successfully unionize, pharmacists as a whole will finally get relief from a problem that has been going on for decades in the chain pharmacy environment.

	Since Feb 5, 2015, six pharmacy managers and a staff pharmacist in my district have quit in less than three months because of the atrocious working conditions at CVS. This alone should make it clear that something is seriously wrong with the chain pharmacy system.

	They’ve left us no choice but to unionize. It’s time to act.

	I suggest that pharmacists across this country contact the heads of their pharmacy schools, their pharmacist associations, and their boards of pharmacy and ask them to follow the lead of the Connecticut Pharmacists Association in contacting their labor relations boards and demanding meetings with chain-pharmacy representatives.

See also: Stand up and make yourself heard

	In addition, pharmacists should make all mayors, governors, senators, and congressmen aware of what is going on.

	The public also should know the circumstances under which retail chain pharmacists labor, because we are going to need their help. Hopefully, public cooperation and support will help us bring to an end the 3.7 million prescription errors that occur every year and are responsible for killing 100,000 patients annually.

	All pharmacists who are interested in unionizing, no matter which chain they work for, should go to 

	Print your name clearly, sign it, and also put on the card whether you’re a PIC, staff pharmacist, or floater, the chain you work for, and store number.

	The time for talk is over. We’ve been complaining for decades, without relief. Now, it’s time to act. Our profession depends on it.

See also: Change will come when pharmacists take action

Pharmacist Eddie Morales is leading the charge to unionize in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Jersey. For more information, go to 

for information on unionization initiatives and activities in other states. 

To relieve intractable working conditions, pharmacists will have to join together. It's time to unionize.