Workers from some of the nation's biggest pharmacy chains, from CVS to Walgreens, have planned another "walkout" starting Monday as they continue to plead for better working conditions.
They're calling it "pharmageddon," Shane Jerominski, a licensed pharmacist for over a decade who is helping coordinate the latest protest, told FOX Business.
From Monday through Wednesday workers at Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid have pledged to call in sick, according to Jerominski. It comes on the heels of a protest earlier this month when Walgreens employees at 200 of its nearly 9,000 locations called out sick. Shortly before that, CVS employees in at least a dozen Kansas stores didn't show up to work in a separate walkout.
Jerominski says workers are demanding a slate of things to ease the onslaught of duties they have taken on in recent years. Some of the biggest demands include guaranteed hours and better pay for technicians. They also want pharmacists and pharmacy managers to have a direct say in the scheduling.
The hope is that these changes will lead to better staffed stores, improve their work-life balance and reduce the margin of error that they say could impact patient safety.
"We are a force to be reckoned with and we demand more from those who would see us and those we care for suffer," a letter sent to Walgreens staff from organizers of "pharmaggedon" said.
It's hard to pinpoint how many people will be involved in this latest effort, according to Jerominski. However, according to a poll posted on his social media page, The Accidental Pharmacist, over 2,000 people said, "I'm all for this no matter what."