As a long-time employee of CVS, I have first-hand experience of the challenges we face daily. My colleagues - my friends - struggle to make ends meet on the small hours given, sometimes as little as 16 hours per week. Even those who have given ten or more years of service to this company find themselves earning less than newly hired individuals. These are not rare stand-alone cases, but an ever-growing pattern that we can no longer ignore.

Furthermore, the constant threat to our personal safety is alarming. We have been threatened at gunpoint, yet the company's response has been lackluster at best, hiring 'security guards' who spend their time largely focused on their phones, providing little real protection. The hiring of competent, professional security personnel is long overdue.

We are not asking for special treatment. What we ask for is respect, dignity, and fair treatment. Our demands are simple - adequate wage that reflects our experience and dedication, better hours, improved benefits, and most importantly, our safety should not be compromised. We demand for a system be put in place that ensures the company's own policies. 

The retail sector of this company has been mistreated for far too long. From the store associates and supervisors who are called 'dispensable' assets, to the Store Managers and District Leaders who can lose their jobs for circumstances out of their control. Pharmacy workers have been protected, we have to help them when they are understaffed, but where are they when we need it?

When we report a colleague to the loss prevention manager, where is our bonus? When we report management for hostile work environment, where is our support? When we call out for our sick child, when the company knows of our status as single parents, where is our safeguard from black marks?

By signing this petition, you're supporting the call for CVS to take immediate action to recognize a union that would uphold the values that CVS claims to represent, to support the workers who were pillars in marching out of the pandemic. This is not only about us at CVS, it's about every hardworking individual in the retail sector who deserves a fair shot. We can no longer suffer in silence while the upper echelons of the company reap the benefits of our labor. Stand with us. Let's affect change together. Please, sign the petition.