Employees claim the company is trying to cut benefits
MIDDLETOWN – Employees at Rite Aid pharmacy stores picketed in
front of the Middletown store on Dolson Avenue Sunday afternoon to protest
what they say is the company’s refusal to reach a fair and equitable
contract with them. They are members of 1199SEIU healthcare workers.
Some two dozen employees braved the extreme temperatures. Debbie Rios, a certified pharmacy tech, charged the company is trying to take their current benefits away from them.
“We are trying to win this contract so that we can what we work so far for,” Rios said. “We have people like myself, working for 18 years, and some people 25 years in the company. We are all out here in 100 degrees fighting to keep our benefits.”
Poughkeepsie pharmacist Carmen Schafer said the company is delinquent in paying into their benefit fund.
“We are in court for the National Benefit Fund,” she said. “They are over $ 8 million in arrears. The National Benefit Fund has no option but to push us out of the benefit fund because Rite Aid has not paid over $8 million.”
That reflects employees in New York and New Jersey, Schafer said.
Company officials could not be reached for comment late Sunday.
