CVS workers strike at 7 Southern California stores for better pay and health care

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Workers at seven CVS pharmacies in Southern California have gone on strike for better pay and health care and to protest what they say is bad-faith contract bargaining by the company.

The walkout, which affected four stores in Los Angeles and three in Orange County, began Friday morning and continued into the weekend. On Saturday outside one of the LA stores, strikers urged customers not to cross the picket lines.

Melissa Acosta, a pharmacy technician who is on the contract bargaining committee, accused the company of “intimidating workers, observing them, getting in the way of them speaking to union representatives.”

The CVS locations affected have remained open, staffed by managers and nonunion employees.

Workers planned to continue picketing until negotiations resume Wednesday. The strike was authorized by a vote of the two local United Food and Commercial Workers unions involved on Sept. 29, with more than 90% in favor.

“We're disappointed that our UFCW member colleagues have gone on strike at a few select locations in the Los Angeles area,” company spokesperson Amy Thibault said in a statement.

Thibault said CVS has made progress on getting to a final contract and reached “tentative agreements” to raise pay and increase the company's health insurance contributions.

Acosta said she cannot meet the cost of the insurance CVS offers and instead is enrolled in the state-run program Covered California.

“In my nine years of working with CVS, I’ve never been able to afford their health care plan,” she said.

Major pharmacy chains across the country have been struggling with costs and online competition. CEO Karen Lynch of CVS Health, which owns the chain, recently stepped down as shares dropped 19%. CVS is nearing the end of a three-year plan to close 900 stores.

CVS pharmacy technicians, who are required to complete an extensive training program and satisfy licensing requirements, currently make $24.90 an hour after five years on the job, according to the union.

Carlos Alfaro, a technician who joined the strike, said stores are understaffed as the flu season begins.

“We have to call (patients) constantly to get flu shots, push vaccines,” Alfaro said. “This is a lot of extra work we're expected to do, on top of filling medications at the pharmacy.”

Many stores have increasingly locked up items as an anti-shoplifting measure, forcing customers to get assistance from employees. Workers say that further exacerbates the understaffing problem.

“There are so many customers that don’t get help and have to constantly wait to get something unlocked,” said Acosta. “They think we just don’t want to help them, when in reality the company doesn't give us adequate staffing to be able to provide excellent customer service.”

Workers are also asking for better store security, among other demands.

Workers on strike picket in front of a CVS pharmacy on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jaimie Ding)

HONOLULU (AP) — A teenager in Hawaii was recovering Friday after spending more than 11 hours clinging to a kayak before being rescued during an overnight ocean search by an off-duty lifeguard and the U.S. Coast Guard.

Kahiau Kawai, 17, had gotten separated from his high school paddling team on Wednesday after capsizing approximately half a mile (0.80 kilometers) south of Honolulu's Sheraton Waikiki Beach Resort. He was on a 20-foot (6-meter) kayak and was not wearing a life jacket, the Coast Guard said.

Kawai's parents in a statement thanked the state, city and federal rescue teams who searched through the night, with a “very special mahalo” to family, friends and the the Honolulu lifeguard who went out on his own to search for the teen.

“Kahiau, who could see rescue teams looking for him, was strong, resilient and brave for 11.5 hours in the dark, and is grateful to be back with his family and friends,” Ka’ala and Kelehua Kawai said in the statement.

The teenager's Kamehameha Schools teammates reported him missing during kayaking practice Wednesday afternoon, the school said in a statement.

At about 4 a.m. Thursday, a Coast Guard airplane crew located the kayak with the teen clinging to it and deployed a flare to mark his position off Waikiki.

Off-duty lifeguard Noland Keaulana, a Polynesian voyager and part of a well-known Native Hawaiian waterman family, had been searching through the night on a boat. The Coast Guard directed him to the flare.

“I was expecting the worst, and then when I seen his head up next to the kayak ... his family is lucky and this kid is strong,” Keaulana said at a news conference Thursday. “I think he was in total shock because he wasn't emotional at all. And I was actually crying my guts out because he was OK."

The boy was treated for injuries and hypothermia and taken to an emergency room. He was in serious but stable condition, the Coast Guard said.

From left, Acting Director of Honolulu Ocean Safety Kurt Lager, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi, lifeguard Noland Keaulana, Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Nicholas Iannarone and Honolulu Deputy Fire Chief Jason Samala make shaka gestures as they stand for a photo at a news conference for a rescue of a 17-year-old kayaker in Honolulu on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (Jennifer Nilson/U.S. Coast Guard via AP)