Union, Walgreens dispute standards

WASILLA — Walgreens bills itself as “the pharmacy America trusts,” but that doesn’t include the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America.

Members of the trade workers union have been demonstrating against the pharmacy chain over claims Walgreens fails to meet local area labor standards when constructing its buildings. Drivers on the Parks Highway near the Wasilla outlet may have noticed over the past month people displaying a large sign proclaiming “Shame on Walgreens.”

The demonstration is manned by members of the Alaska Regional Council of Carpenters, which is affiliated with the union. Although the sign also proclaims a “labor dispute,” it’s aimed at Walgreens corporate construction practices and not at employees of the local store, said Arylis Scates, director of organizing for the council.

“Walgreens started off as a great company doing everything correctly,” he said. “They were meeting standards in most areas and doing things above the board.”

That has changed in recent years when the company began receiving a string of multi-million dollar judgments and settlements against it, he said. Now, the union claims Walgreens hires substandard contractors to do construction work who often don’t offer a living wage or health insurance. It’s a claim he said is aimed at the corporation and not necessarily the way the Wasilla store, which opened last year, was built.

“As Walgreens started to lose these mulit-million dollar lawsuits, they also started to wane on their area standards,” he said. “Instead of saying, ‘We need to turn this around and improve our standards,’ they decided to take a corporate action of cutting more corners and employ less-than-area-standards contractors.”

Those lawsuits include a 2008 $24 million settlement of a lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for alleged race discrimination. Earlier this year, the company settled a deceptive marketing complaint brought by the Federal Trade Commission for $6 million. Walgreens was hit with a $25.8 million judgment for the 2007 death of a Florida woman that was caused by a prescription mistake. The largest blow came in 2008, when the company settled a Medicaid whistleblower lawsuit for $35 million.

A call to the Wasilla Walgreens for comment was referred to Robert Elfinger, a media relations specialist for the company in Illinois. Elfinger said Walgreens disputes the union’s claims and acknowledged there are similar demonstrations at stores throughout the United States. He declined to answer questions about the union’s specific grievances, saying the company’s position is outlined in a statement.

“We require that all developers and contractors who build or remodel Walgreens stores offer their employees health insurance benefits and a living wage,” the statement says. “We also encourage union contractors to submit bids, and a great number of our construction jobs are performed with union labor. We require that our developers and contractors bid our jobs to both union and nonunion contractors and when bids are competitive, we favor union labor.”

Scates said the issue isn’t whether Walgreens uses union or nonunion labor.

“It does not matter if it’s union or not,” he said. “I want them to meet that standard. … If they were doing the responsible thing, (Walgreens would) employ contractors who have already gone through the proper steps. These are people who have taken time out of their lives to learn their trade, improve their trade.”

The Wasilla demonstration is peaceful, Scates said, adding the goal is to educate people about the union’s complaint.

“We want people to see that sign and wonder why,” he said. “Hopefully, they’ll go over and ask about it, then do their own due diligence to learn about it.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269