Good morning. Yes, the pharmacist union brought their concerns right
to the front door of the Walgreens headquarters here in
Deerfield.
Joe Pignataro is with me.
He's the president of the union.
The unions been without a contract for quite some time.
Yes, it's been just about a year right now that
we've been out,
you know today we're just here trying to show support
to our fellow pharmacists.
I'm a full time pharmacist myself with the company,
been here almost 34 years,
you know, and just letting people know that we're,
we're the backbone of this company.
I don't think people realize that their pharmacist is part
of a union.
And so the changes that the company wants to have
are changing the way you would do your job.
Yeah, absolutely. We have a thing called telepharmacy coming in
and for people don't know what that is,
that's a mainly machines and virtual technology coming in and
replacing actual pharmacists in the store.
So your ability to come in and have a question
answered practically immediately could be delayed.
They're, you know, have to end up waiting to get
on to a tablet in order to have access to
some type of care.
Technology can be a good thing.
But the interaction that you have with a customer or
patient is at the heart of what you do.
Absolutely. It's what brings me to work every day.
You know, I I am a first lying triage for
every person that comes in and asks a question.
I think it be under insured uninsured.
You know, just looking to get some type of possible
solution to in a problem or determine whether or not
they have to,
you know go to something that's more serious.
And that could be gone at some point.
That's that's hard to understand for people who are just
trying to get their medicine.
We should tell people that operations are not interrupted by
this rally right now,
correct? Yes. This is not a work stoppage.
Our point is to bring awareness to the public that
we care for our customers and we want them to
know that we're there for them and the support is
to let them know that we're here.
So without a contract, what would be the next steps?
Well, if we.
If we can't come to an agreement,
then there could be a work stoppage down the road.
But that's not what we really want.
We want to be there for our,
you know, our customers. That's that's the point of why
I'm here.
Thank you so much. The rally has been ongoing this
morning,
seems to be getting a lot of support.
And in an hour, they're going to have a news
conference with elected officials and other union representatives reporting live
in Deerfield.
I'm Joni Lum, back to you.