'Pharmageddon' hits U.S. with walkouts at multiple pharmacies, including CVS and Walgreens

Pharmacists protesting deteriorating working conditions inside the nation’s largest retail chains have launched their third and largest walkout of the season with a three-day movement they have dubbed "Pharmageddon." 

Organizers estimated the effort has drawn as many as 4,500 pharmacists and pharmacy technicians from multiple chains, including CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens. It also drew support from the American Pharmacists Association, the industry’s largest professional organization, which said in a statement that it stands with every participant of the movement.

Representatives from all three companies, however, told USA TODAY they are experiencing zero to minimal disruptions as a result of the effort. 

It is the latest walkout to hit the troubled industry this autumn. The first closed more than a dozen CVS pharmacies in the Kansas City area in September. The second affected roughly the same number of Walgreens stores from coast to coast in early October.

Like participants of the earlier protests, those taking part in the walkout, which began Monday, told USA TODAY they are taking this dramatic action to draw attention to their plight and the danger it poses for patients. For too long, many said, their companies have ignored pleas for more staff and resources, which they said they need to safely do their jobs.

“I think most of us who are participating feel like we haven’t been heard,” said Nathan Fuller, a Walgreens pharmacist in Colorado who stayed home from work Monday. “People are either so burned out or fed up with the way things have been going that it's hit a bursting point. If we continue to go down the direction we’re going, it’s going to be too unsafe.”

Chain pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens have consistently slashed staffing levels while saddling their front-line workers with a burgeoning list of additional duties. The situation was bad before the coronavirus pandemic; COVID-19 made it worse. It has only gone downhill since then, a USA TODAY investigation found last month. 

Read the full investigation:Prescription for disaster: America's broken pharmacy system in revolt over burnout and errors

Stores that a decade ago might have had two pharmacists and six pharmacy technicians filling an average of 500 prescriptions a day now may have half the staff and an even higher prescription volume – plus an endless crush of vaccine appointments, rapid tests and patient consultation calls, the investigation found.

In addition, every task is timed and measured against corporate goals that reward speed and profits. Staff who do not fill prescriptions fast enough, answer the phones quickly enough or drum up enough vaccination business can face discipline, reassignment or termination.

The pressure, pharmacists told USA TODAY, has led to increased medication errors that can endanger patients. 

“The staffing levels are just unsafe,” said one Walgreens pharmacist in Washington state who has joined the walkout. “I recently had to work multiple doubles in a row. By the end of last Friday morning, I could barely think straight and caught myself making several errors I would have never made otherwise, like verifying the prescription with the wrong name. I knew it was due to exhaustion and overwork.”

The pharmacist, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation from the company, explained that working a double meant a 12-hour shift. He said his pharmacy was closed Monday because of the walkouts and he knew of at least one other pharmacy in his area that also closed.

Walgreens spokesman Marty Maloney said only two of its nearly 9,000 pharmacies were affected by the walkouts Monday. CVS spokeswoman Amy Thibault said her company hadn’t experienced “any unusual activity regarding unplanned pharmacy closures or pharmacist walkouts.”

But Shane Jerominski, a California pharmacist and one of the walkout organizers, disputed those characterizations. He said he knew of at least 25 Walgreens locations that were closed. He did not have an exact count of closed CVS locations.

Walkout participants interviewed by USA TODAY said they want more staff so they can safely fill and dispense prescriptions, vaccinate patients and make patient consultation calls. Right now, many said, their companies do not provide enough staffing or pay pharmacy technicians enough to retain them. 

CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid all said in previous or recent statements that they have made numerous efforts to improve working conditions, as well as recruit and retain talent. 

“We remain committed to providing safe, productive and supportive work environments for all our associates,” said Rite Aid spokeswoman Catherine Carter, who added the company is unaware of any walkout activity among its staff. “We believe that our efforts in recent years and months to improve work/life balance and working conditions for our pharmacists is evidence of our commitment to the team.”

During the CVS walkout, corporate staff flew into Kansas City to meet with organizers and agreed to a series of changes to improve working conditions and patient safety, including additional staffing and paid overtime. Prem Shah, CVS’s chief pharmacy officer and president of pharmacy and consumer wellness, issued a memo to Kansas City staff apologizing for not responding sooner to their concerns.

Walgreens also took action after walkouts hit its stores in early October, according to the organizer of that effort, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation. He said the company launched a listening tour and allowed understaffed stores to reduce the number of vaccination appointments that can be scheduled in a day.

“I have to give the company some credit for that,” he said.

Not all of the pharmacists joining the walkout work for the major chains. Kyara Dawbin is a pharmacy technician for Hannaford Supermarkets in Maine. She said that although Hannaford is better off than other places, she has seen similar levels of staff cuts and added demands. 

Dawbin said she decided to join the walkout to send a message that patient safety is paramount and hopes her company and others will take that message seriously. She also hopes customers will take note and be more patient.

“Especially during the pandemic, there were a lot of violent threats made against co-workers,” Dawbin said. “It creates this really toxic environment for employees, where they want to do everything they can, but it’s dangerous – they’re being honked at in the parking lot or harassed while they’re doing their job. It’s not right.”

Emily Le Coz is a reporter on the USA TODAY investigations team. Contact her at elecoz@usatoday.com or @emily_lecoz.