Union agitating at big Henderson pharmacy

Michelle Swafford

Thursday, Aug. 21, 2003 | 10:56 a.m.

Nearly 2,000 local and international union members gathered Wednesday afternoon at Medco Health Solutions in Henderson to protest what they called high health insurance premiums and low wages.

Paper, Allied-Industrial Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (P.A.C.E) members took a break from their national convention in Las Vegas to support P.A.C.E. Local 8-675, which represents about 1,100 of Medco's 1,500 local employees.

Medco is proposing a new health insurance contract that would require employees to pay 20 percent of their insurance costs, union members said. They said employees will pay 7 percent until the current contract expires on Sept. 1. Medco officials refused to confirm or deny the contract specifics because of negotiations.

Union employees say they want a wage increase, especially if their health insurance costs are going up 13 percentage points. They said the average salary for the Medco automated pharmacy employees at 6225 Annie Oakley Drive is $13 per hour.

Employees declined to say how much of a raise they wanted because of negotiations.

Local Medco pharmacist Joe Cohen said, "We've trailed the going pharmacy rate here in the Valley for five years. Wages are 4 percent below other pharmacists."

"They're unwilling to increase raises to pay for continuous health care coverage , which essentially lowers the standard of living in Las Vegas," P.A.C.E. Secretary-Treasurer and contract negotiator David Campbell said.

"They're a fairly good company, but they're going down the wrong path now," said Jack Hammond, P.A.C.E. international representative.

For some employees, who only make $8 or $9 an hour, the increase could equal 15 percent of their income, Hammond said. "These people can't afford 20 percent."

"They're trying to operate out of employees' pockets," Medco employee Robert Doughtie said.

New Jersey-based Medco operates an automated pharmacy at 6225 Annie Oakley Drive that dispenses more than 850 types of drugs through mail-order prescriptions and retail pharmacies. It has filled more than 100 million prescriptions since opening in 1997 and is the sister operation to an automated pharmacy in Willingboro, N.J.

Medco was spun off from its parent company, New Jersey-based Merck & Co., this week and began trading shares on the New York Stock Exchange and was added to the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.. Merck is a drug manufacturer that is known for cholestrol-lowering drug Zocor, ulcer medicine Pepcid and arthritis remedy Vioxx.

Protest organizers said it was coincidental that the protest was on the same day Medco employees were celebrating the spin-off with a barbecue.

Henderson-based employees are among the first to negotiate health insurance terms with Medco -- so a handful of employees from other locations such as Tampa were in town.

Medco spokesman Jeff Simek said the protest was unprecedented for the company.

"There clearly are issues on the table, but that is what the negotiations are all about," he said. "We're optimistic that we'll reach reasonable accommodations."