The pharmacists involved have told the PDA that this is in response to what they see as typical management practice. Once the employers get to the stage where they have a large number of complaints and concerns being expressed by their pharmacist employees, rather than risk them setting up a union; as was done in the UK, the employers simply invite them to a free Pizza evening. Here they are encouraged to air their concerns, and they are then told that something will now be done about it. What happens next is often… precisely nothing. The Pizza is not working movement is lobbying the government at State and at National level in the USA.
In conversations with colleagues in the US, it is often very apparent how similar the issues faced by pharmacists working for large corporations are on both sides of the Atlantic. If pharmacists only look as far as their own national borders, they might conclude that every issue is down to the government, contract or regulation in that country.
However, seeing the wider international context allows pharmacists to also consider how with a different government, regulations and pharmacy contract in each nation, similar issues such as understaffing can still occur in multiple countries. When it is the same global leadership of multinational corporations, it allows pharmacists to also consider how much of the issues faced are due to the commercial priorities of those employers who dominate the sector within each country.
Frontline US pharmacists supporting this movement are now crowdfunding the production of a documentary about the Fast-Foodification of Pharmacy in the US. It is similar to the one that was shown by the BBC in the UK in 2016 about working conditions in one of the large multiples.
The documentary, to be called “Would You Like Shots with That?”, aims to expose the reality of the crisis happening behind what they call the “retail pharmacy” counter.
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