MADISON – Last week, employees of the pharmacy chain Walgreens walked out of store across the country to protest unfair working conditions. But there is one thing about the strike that makes it unique: Walgreens workers are not unionized.
WTMJ reached out to University of Wisconsin – Madison Professor Emerita and former U.S. Solicitor of Labor Carin Clauss. When asked about the non-unionized Walgreens employees, she responded with the following statement:
‘The National Labor Relations act (the applicable federal law that controls this situation) protects workers, whether unionized or not, from taking concerted action to protest working conditions. Employers can not retaliate against them although store could advise if not return to work can begin replacing them but cannot replace by targeting just those who are most active or by taking activism into account when recalling employees.’
The walkouts are being organized on platforms like Reddit and Facebook by individual employees. It’s unknow when the next walkout will take place, if at all.
