25/09/2023
Official statement out of KS.
On 9/20 and 9/21 in the Kansas City and surrounding market's, the CVS Pharmacist's staged a walkout and closed their Pharmacy doors. This walk out was in protest of the brutal work environment that CVS has created which fosters extreme stress, anxiety, and even tears. The extreme workload on these Pharmacists makes providing SAFE patient care impossible. It is normal for a store to be over 1000 prescriptions behind. Knowing that these stores are days to weeks behind, CVS still allows the scheduling of 15 vaccine appointments per hour on top of the daily workload, on top of being 1000 prescriptions behind. Something has to give!
What has happened since the walkout is the main question a lot of interested people want to know. And simply put, damage control is the only thing on CVS's mind. The root cause of the issues we face in the Pharmacies was ignored and short term fixes were put into place, which one Pharmacist called a bandaid on a stab wound. The company has flown in top executives to the KC market to assist in this damage control, including the Executive Director Employee and Labor Relations, who is undoubtedly here to prevent these abused Pharmacists from unionizing. They also have flown the Executive Vice President and Chief Pharmacy Officer of CVS Health, Prem Shah to assist with the damage control. Unfortunately, no one from the Corporate team has yet to sit down with Pharmacists in the market to discuss changes that are being made to provide a long term solution. We have been dealing with this pressure-cooker environment for years, putting our patients at risk, and enough is enough.
We are not being heard and these brutal conditions are only getting worse so what MUST we do next?? We have to force their corporate hands and DEMAND change. We are inviting ALL Pharmacists to stand together and tell this Fortune 4 company, we will no longer stay quiet and take this abuse. On Wednesday September 27, 2023 we invite EVERY Pharmacist across the entire country to stand with Kansas City and FORCE change NOW. A large number of CVS pharmacies in the Kansas City and surrounding markets will be joining together for the 2nd wave of walk-outs. We will be closing our doors again to make sure CVS understands changes need to happen NOW. We invite Pharmacists from ALL retail companies, in EVERY State to join this cause to let these HUGE companies know, we will no longer be abused!
The unfortunate part of this stand we are taking is that it will negatively impact those who we fight for most, our patients. We apologize to them, but please understand this fight is for you as well! This short term inconvenience is to fight for long term change so that your Pharmacy teams can drastically improve care and service they will be able to deliver to you SAFELY! We ask that you support us in this fight which will ultimately be your WIN.
Thank you for your time and support in this long overdue issue. Pharmacist's nationwide, we invite you to join us, if that happens, they HAVE to listen and things WILL improve!!
