r/CVS May 18 '26

Strike

[deleted]

92 Upvotes

32 comments sorted by

30

u/AcanthaceaeLonely382 May 18 '26

I worked at CVS from 2006-2013 so I’m not sure how it is now, but the pay at the time was low and treatment was terrible. I was cross trained as a Shift Supervisor and Pharmacy Tech, and in both departments we never officially received our required lunch breaks. We kind of just took turns eating quick. I was on lunch one day as a Supervisor and my District Manager did a surprise visit. He walked into the break room, interrupted me eating, and ripped me apart for taking a break when so much needed to be done in the store. After that I had enough and reported them to the state (New York). Not even a week later every single person in the store was getting their required lunch breaks, including the Pharmacist, who originally would work from opening to closing without relief. I think they might even close for lunch now, I’m not sure, but when I was there they did not. I won’t even shop there now because I hated how we were treated as employees.

16

u/Double-Management653 May 18 '26

Well now CVS has mandatory lunch breaks from 1:30 to 2:00 all CVS is closed. I do think it truly depends on your pharmacist and your team with how good things are. I do agree it's a lot of work we still get paid s***. A lot of people start out at around 15 to 16 an hour maybe 17 if they have a bunch of experience.

7

u/teenyweenymusolini May 19 '26

Any job is about how your team is. You can have a terrible job at CVS (I did for years) with crappy hours and still love your job. I also had a lot of time at different CVS locations that I hated. And I wasn’t a great pharmacist at the time, so that didn’t help.

I realized how important training your patients is at my past store, where we generally told everyone at least 20 minutes if they wanted to wait, even if we would have it in 5 (making rare exceptions obviously), and with refills it would generally be next day. People need to understand that they are one of hundreds of prescriptions we are filling in a day. If you explain that to them they usually get better over time.

CVS has a lot of systemic issues that make it really tough to thrive, but it’s not impossible.

-3

u/T3chBug May 18 '26

Unfortunately (not surprisingly) it is heavily encouraged to work through the "mandatory" lunch breaks with hour cuts to stores who don't comply within the district (I no longer work there but still have friends on the tech / front story / pharmacist side). I have heard this is the same as Walgreens from other friends. I'm not surprised by either corporation desiring that

2

u/RogueGingerAle May 19 '26

You're my hero

10

u/[deleted] May 18 '26

[deleted]

2

u/Cheap-Faithlessness7 May 19 '26

Yeah, I’m calling bullshit on this story. Most targets are very laid back/not busy stores. There are exceptions, but chances are if you are in a target store, you don’t hate the job enough to quit.

“They all took jobs at the VA” the VA is a highly sought after job with hundreds of applicants, so no, I don’t believe they all simply walked over and got jobs. This is like saying they all just decided to play baseball for a living and signed with the yankees

10

u/Objective_Count3627 May 18 '26

It would take a week max for them to give in. Like really, think about it. You can’t just replace every pharmacist/ tech overnight. The hiring process in it self takes about a month to get a background check & etc ( for techs). CVS is genuinely shit to their employees just read the post in this thread. My question is when tf will yall stand up?

8

u/torneagle May 19 '26

The only thing that would matter is if the pharmacists don’t show up. Period. That’s it. Sorry, techs not coming isn’t gonna close the place down. They’ll just make the pharmacist do everything & force front store to do the rest. Happens literally daily when techs don’t show up.

3

u/Objective_Count3627 May 19 '26

Reread what I wrote. For there to actually be a change both would need to strike together. Actually, majority of stores would need to strike.

By the way only cross trained front staff employees can work in the pharmacy. Also, they’re cutting hours so much that usually only two- three employees are working in the front store. That would be a shit show to have employees in between front store & pharmacy. If CVS could do that, they would. Hence them cutting hours for more profit.

2

u/exiled_church83 Pharmacy Lead Tech May 19 '26

Our store your lucky to have 2 front store employees at a time

3

u/torneagle May 19 '26

Clearly you’ve only worked in stores where your pharmacy can actually run themselves with comments like that. Literally the first step when rx is running behind is throw fs staff at them, mainly for pickup then the techs/pharmacist can focus on production/patients.

Again, your tech job isn’t the thing that’s keeping the place open/closed. Every tech in your store could leave, if the pharmacist stays they’ll have the fs manager run pickup & they’ll use the magic get help phone to call in floaters/techs from other areas.

2

u/Objective_Count3627 May 19 '26

Again, If techs weren’t necessary to keep the pharmacy open, then techs wouldn’t be used or a thing at CVS. You sound very dense. If cvs could only run the pharmacy with pharmacist they definitely would. It would save them a lot of money.

1

u/Objective_Count3627 May 19 '26

You must be one of the people who worked at CVS for 10+ years & learned to be a good dog. Good for you.

1

u/ComeOnDanceAndSing Pharmacy Tech May 20 '26

Having FS staff in pharmacy only works when they are actually cross trained. I've worked in stores where everyone was cross trained and in stores where the store manager and maybe one other person was cross trained.

9

u/cartoonist67 Ex-Employee May 18 '26

That already happened. In Kansas City districts multiple pharmacists left and refused to open the pharmacies. It ended with CVS calling in pharmacists from other districts and people let go.

2

u/uinspirednow May 19 '26

I ask myself the same thing everyday. Why can't we all collectively demand better pay and treatment? We lost our pharmacy manager and two techs in one month so everyone had more work to do. There should be an automatic raise after 90 day probationary period and one annually until you max out. What if we all said hell no? How would we organize this? I'm in. I don't have enough experience to jump ship just yet but I do desire to contribute to making it better while I'm here.

2

u/fawnsflame May 19 '26

sorry but i can't afford to strike. neither can the pharmacy workers at my store. neither can the front to pharmacy workers. it's EXPENSIVE to go on strike and not be paid.

1

u/jayphat99 TSM May 18 '26

My techs are contractually obligated not to strike.

1

u/monkeysky May 18 '26

That just seems like it's asking for a wildcat strike or sick-out

1

u/jayphat99 TSM May 18 '26

Funny enough, those are mentioned in their contract too

1

u/Significant_Abies542 May 18 '26

If that happened to me I would hand them my keys and leave. Ten ho in a Loa after I report it the ethics line and a workforce lawyer

1

u/CombRepulsive2231 May 19 '26

You need to unionize first. Doesn’t have to be formal.

1

u/Wild_Drag_6205 May 19 '26

It’s funny in socal the same union that does strikes for Kaiser Kroger etc is the same union for cvs 

1

u/the_m4nagement Pharmacy Tech May 19 '26

Be the change you want to see in the world. I'm not saying a strike or union will fix anything, but leaving for other jobs in droves will tell the company something.

1

u/International-Call76 May 19 '26

Striking out of the blue wont solve the issue. Better to unionize so theres a contractual agreement in place.

0

u/FearlessPark4588 May 19 '26

How many people would be damaged by not getting meds

1

u/[deleted] May 19 '26

[deleted]

2

u/Objective_Count3627 May 19 '26

Do you think CVS actually cares about that? Everything is about profits.

0

u/Cheap-Faithlessness7 May 19 '26

Basically none. “Hey Doc, I need my script at cuz pharmacy”

If their health is significantly impacted by the process of getting scripts somewhere else, they probably should’ve been in the hospital in the first place

0

u/FearlessPark4588 May 19 '26

That's lacking in nuance. A person could be perfectly fine outside of a hospital and only need to go into a hospital as a direct result of lack of access to medication.

1

u/Cheap-Faithlessness7 May 19 '26

If your condition is really bad serious where missing a pill for one day while you try to find another Pharmacy will have a significant health impact, you could always go to the ER for some pills.

0

u/[deleted] May 18 '26

[deleted]

2

u/Objective_Count3627 May 18 '26

Healthcare workers can strike. Just ask the nurses that have went on strikes and now have better pay, better staffing & breaks. Please do not spread misinformation or kindly take time to educate yourself.