Express Scripts (NASDAQ: ESRX) Suspends Union Activists (despite $8M in concessions from workers)

[Omaha Steve]

Union workers speak out, scare the crap out of company, get suspended ... rally tomorrow in Philly outside the plant. Enough is enough ...


Express Scripts, Inc. (NASDAQ: ESRX), the second-largest prescription benefits management firm (PBM) in the United States, is demanding unjustified contract concessions from workers employed at two of its facilities in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. We wanted keep you informed of new developments and the efforts by members of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania to save 1,000 jobs.

After Workers Take Fight to St. Louis and New York, Express Scripts Panics and Suspends Three Workers for Fighting to Save Their Jobs
Workers from Bensalem took the fight to save their jobs to St. Louis and New York this week where they talked to investors, clients and key labor and community allies about their plight.

In response the company panicked and suspended three of the workers’ bargaining committee members without pay. Jackie Dixon, Debbie Dronsfield and Ken Smith - the three suspended workers - have 31 years of service between them. This is intimidation, pure and simple, and it is only galvanizing the workers to fight back even harder.

The workers at Bensalem will be holding a fightback rally tomorrow at the Street Rd. facility from 4-7pm to demand the reinstatement of the suspended workers.

Investors and Customers have a Right to Know
We think investors and customers of Express Scripts deserve to know the truth about the stability of the company they’re helping fund--and how laying off 1,000 workers in PA could delay delivery of prescriptions to patients, and cause clients to look elsewhere for service. That’s why we traveled to New York City and St. Louis on Tuesday.

In New York the company’s investors and stakeholders, were gathered together for a daylong meeting in the St. Regis Hotel. Standing outside the opulent Fifth Avenue hotel, the workers passed out flyers about the company and spoke with conference attendees entering or leaving the hotel.

Not surprisingly, it quickly became evident that our attempts to spread awareness about ESI’s reckless behavior were not welcome by ESI. One by one, more than a dozen of us were thrown out as we attempted to enter the hotel to distribute information to ESI investors.

Undaunted and determined to have their message heard, ESI employees held their ground outside of the hotel's entrance to speak with investors and conference attendees entering or leaving the St. Regis.

By the end of the day, we made stops at the offices of nearly a dozen ESI board members, investors and allies in the labor community. We even went to talk with Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, an Express Script client. At each office, we requested to hand-deliver letters with important info about Express Scripts we think investors deserve to know.

What’s the information included in these letters that Express Scripts was so reluctant to let us distribute to investors? Here's a quick snapshot of some central issues of concern about the company:

1) ESI is threatening plant closures and layoffs, despite $8M in concessions from workers

* Despite a 41% increase in profits this year over 2009, ESI plans to shut down one Bensalem, PA facility on December 16th, eliminating 350 jobs two weeks before Christmas. These are the same workers that ESI thanked in 2009 for setting a nationwide one-day efficiency record in processing prescriptions.

* ESI also continues to threaten shutting down their other Bensalem facility, which employs another 650 workers, if employees do not accept draconian and unjustified concession demands. The workers have already offered $8 million in concessions to the company.

2) ESI is not just demanding economic concessions -- they seemingly also want to prevent workers’ freedom of speech when it comes to conversing with any government regulators. About twenty percent of ESI’s business is with the federal government. Yet, ESI forbids its workers from talking to government regulators? It’s unclear how that can possibly translate into a workable situation.

3) Closing the Bensalem, PA facilities is a move that could delay delivery of important prescriptions to patients. It’s unclear whether the company’s other facilities around the country are equipped or staffed to handle the workload that the Bensalem plants currently handle.

* ESI wants to move the PA work to two facilities - one in St. Louis, and the other one in Tempe, AZ. That means these facilities will have to fill an average of 75,000 more prescriptions than they’re already filling.

* Express Scripts already provides service for more than 140 clients and will be bringing on 3 large new clients in January. The company recently told employees that their new FedEx contract alone could require 30,000 prescriptions a day beginning January 1st. How will Express Scripts have the capacity to meet new demand?

Building an Alliance
While one delegation of workers was in New York, another group was in St. Louis building an alliance to help take on ESI. Determined to stop ESI from tearing apart the community they call home, the workers met with allies in the Labor, Faith and Progressive communities.

And their efforts to build a coalition of support were certainly successful. Following a meeting with the Workers’ Rights Board, the board agreed to hold an investigatory hearing about ESI’s conduct. The St. Louis Workers’ Rights Board, a national affiliate with Jobs with Justice, is the city’s leading community-based authority on social and economic justice, with membership representing faith, labor, community and student groups across the metropolitan area.

In a different meeting with labor and community groups, leaders from the St. Louis area expressed continued concern about ESI’s constant demand on St. Louis county for tax breaks, despite increased profitability.

But the trip to St. Louis wasn’t just about good jobs for the Bensalem workers, it was about good jobs for ESI workers in communities across the country. The ESI workers spent time meeting with local leaders from the Teamsters and UFCW to discuss a strategy to help non-union ESI workers gain a strong voice on the job and ensure good jobs stay in their communities.

For more information, visit www.InsideESI.com.