Walgreens feels very strongly that labor unions do not serve the best interests of our individual employees or the company as a whole.
Walgreens also told its workforce:
While we respect each employee’s right to choose or decline union membership, we certainly prefer direct relationships with you to make our working relationship successful rather than dealing through third parties.
The Walgreens website went on to give the top 10 reasons why Walgreens asks employees to say ‘NO’ to unions. link You can read what Walgreens said in full here.
A Guardian journalist observed in 2014: “[Walgreens] doesn’t appear to like trade unions or to want to deal with them.”link
Trade union laws and labour relations are different in the UK and Walgreens will have to operate within UK legislation. Boots reassured its pharmacists and stated “We want to remind you all we respect the right of all our colleagues to be members of a trade union of their choice”. However, Boots’ preference was to deal with the BPA and work within an agreement that specifically excluded negotiations on matters of real importance to pharmacists, such as pay, hours and working conditions. We believed that the BPA’s track record in stopping the company from cutting pay and benefits from pharmacists is poor. link
Pharmacists showed how they agree by voting to derecognise the BPA, in order that PDAU could be recognised (read more)