Teamster 727 Jewel-Osco Steward Ciprian Gorgan Highlights Union’s Fight For Betting Working Conditions in Recent Tribune Article
Ciprian Gorgan has been a pharmacist at Jewel-Osco for nearly 14 years and is currently a Union Steward who serves on the Union bargaining committee. Gorgan’s leadership and Union pride was recently featured in the Chicago Tribune where he highlighted 727 pharmacists’ fight for enhanced safety measures.
As frontline healthcare providers and essential employees, pharmacists recognized early on the risk COVID-19 posed not only to their personal health, but the health of their families and the customers that frequent the pharmacies. Gorgan and other Local 727 pharmacists quickly organized around a set of demands for Jewel-Osco to do more to provide a clean, safe and healthy work environment during the COVID-19 (coronavirus), including providing every pharmacist with adequate personal protective equipment (PPE). While there is still work to be done, the Company heard the demands of our 727 pharmacists and knew the Union would not back down. Because of the Union’s demands, the Company installed sneeze guards in the pharmacies and have provided staff with face masks.
Below are excerpts from the Tribune article which featured Gorgan:
Gorgan, said he keeps in mind that he has a family at home he wishes to keep safe as well as himself. He said he has backed away from promoting vaccinations to customers, noting the shots are often given in a smaller room.
“It’s a matter of social distancing,” he said. “I cannot give the immunization from 6 feet apart.”
Teamsters Local 727, which represents between 500 and 550 Osco pharmacists in the Chicago area, pressed for protection early on, said Gorgan, a union steward. Gorgan, who works as a floater going from store to store, said Osco has been supplying masks to pharmacists and technicians since late March and recently started distributing N95 masks.
“Usually the company moves slow or doesn’t move at all,” Gorgan said. “This time they moved fast.”
A full copy of the Article can be found here.
Category: Union News
