burnout. Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians who care deeply about their communities and the people they serve cannot in good conscience con- tinue to risk inadvertently harming them in the course of doing their job. The net result of all this is that the reputation of the professional role of a pharmacy technician has slipped underneath the shadow of these problems. As Jerominski points out, “What person wants to go try to enroll in a program that might cost them $15,000 up front, and then not even be guaranteed that they’ll be employed full-time when they’re finished?” And that’s only the beginning of the arc of a phar- macy technician’s career. A pharmacy technician doesn’t just want to be a token cog in the pharma- cy machine. They want career growth, a chance to practice to the top of their role and training. They want to be recognized for what they contribute. The Need to Organize In late 2023, mass walkouts, often referred to as “Pharmageddon,” shut down pharmacies across the country as the ongoing staffing crisis, burnout, and concerns about patient safety translated into activism. And some states, like California, are intro- ducing legislation that will mandate safe staffing levels. But it’s not enough, and not fast enough. As much as the walkouts drew attention to the seri-
ousness of safe and sustainable pharmacy staff- ing, lasting activism is even more essential. “We launched The Pharmacy Guild .org and 30,000 people went on the website the first day to fill out an interest form, and actually crashed the website. That tells you there’s a huge need for pharmacists and technicians to organize across the country, in all settings,” shares Jerominski. This interest is not unfounded. Outside of the push to create lasting change in the pharmacy industry, there’s successful examples to look to. “I would en- courage anybody that has something negative to say like, ‘oh, I don't think unions are right for us’, well, go ask a union employee,” says Jeromins- ki. “There are definitely technicians now that are unionized and their rates of pay are higher, their hours are guaranteed, their benefits are better.” Collectively, pharmacies succeed by every measure including safer care when pharmacy technicians are well-compensated and feel secure in their jobs, decreasing turnover rates and generating valuable long-term experience in those who are motivated to stay in their pharmacies without job-hopping in hopes of a better opportunity. Without unionization, the needle has only moved in tiny degrees towards improving the indus- try. Walkouts and public outcry may temporarily push large corporations to make concessions, al- beit small. These small inroads offer a tantalizing glimpse of what could be possible with a larger
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