Before Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy it had started to close area stores, including the Bartell Drugs stores that they had purchased in 2021. Unfortunately for Shama Ramzan and her coworkers, one of them was the Des Moines Bartell Drugs. Under the union contract, however, workers had rights to severance pay based on their years of service with Bartell Drugs.

Contract negotiations for Bartell Workers had already been underway when the first round of store closures was announced, and so the Union at the bargaining table began to ask questions about the scope and timeline for any planned store closures.

Shama and her coworkers at other locations began to speak up and demanded that Rite Aid be transparent about the store closures and insist that benefits would be paid out on a timely basis. Because of Shama and her coworkers’ advocacy, the Union was able to successfully fight back against Rite Aid’s delays in communication and ensure that Bartell Drugs union members received the severance deserved on a timely basis.

Rite Aid’s failure as a company is not the fault of the employees! Sometimes it is when times are toughest that having a union really counts, and can ensure that even when your store closes, there are benefits to help cushion the blow.