Is 'Pharmageddon' Coming To MA? Pharmacists Planning Walkouts

MASSACHUSETTS — Massachusetts residents who need to get prescriptions filled could be in for a wait as hundreds of pharmacists across more than a dozen states participate in the “Pharmageddon” protest of working conditions at CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid drug stores.

Pharmacists in at least 15 states are participating in Pharmageddon sick-out, which is being organized on social media. The pharmacists aren’t asking for better pay, the sticking point in labor protests over the last several months.

Rather, they are asking employers to hire more pharmacy staff and eliminate policies encouraging them to work harder, which they say increases the likelihood of accidental harm to patients, NBC News reported.

The New York Times, citing a former Walgreen pharmacist involved in organizing protest efforts, reported 25 stores closed on Monday in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Florida, Texas and Illinois. A Walgreens statement obtained by the outlet countered that source's assessment of the situation, saying that only three pharmacies closed and "no more than a handful of pharmacists" walked out.

Protests at Walgreens headquarters in Deerfield, Ill., and CVS headquarters in Woonsocket, RI, were planned Wednesday.

American Pharmacists Association CEO Michael D. Hogue said in a statement Monday that the group stands with the striking pharmacists.

“For far too long, employers have made the situation worse than it needed to be,” he wrote, adding that quotas requiring pharmacists to fill a certain number of prescriptions or administer large numbers of vaccinations are destroying their relationships with patients.

“Supervisors who are not pharmacists do not understand the needs of care teams and make unreasonable demands on time-based productivity,” Hogue said.

Complaints about quotas and inadequate staffing have been common among pharmacists for years, but worsened due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Pharmageddon sick-outs started attracting attention when pharmacists at about a dozen CVS pharmacies in the Kansas City, Missouri, area refused to come to work in mid-September.

In statements, spokespeople for both CVS and Walgreens told Reuters the drug store companies are working to resolve the issues with pharmacists. CVS said it is in “continuous two-way dialogue” with pharmacy workers, while Walgreens said it is focusing on recruiting, retaining and rewarding its pharmacy staff.