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Incoming Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth briefly praised the company’s pharmacy staff during the company’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call.
But he made no mention of the three-day walkouts they held this week to protest chronic understaffing and other poor working conditions. 
Growing labor pressure from frustrated pharmacists and pharmacy technicians is just one of several challenges Wentworth will have on his plate when he steps into the role Oct. 23.

Tim Wentworth, former CEO of Express Scripts.
David A. Grogan | CNBC

Incoming Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth on Thursday briefly praised the company’s pharmacy staff, but made no mention of the three-day protest walkouts they held this week over poor working conditions.
The walkouts reflect rising dissatisfaction among pharmacy employees, who have complained for years about having to grapple with understaffing and burdensome work expectations imposed by corporate management. The Covid-19 pandemic worsened those issues, with new duties such as testing and vaccinations stretching employees even thinner. 

The growing labor pressure is just one of several challenges Wentworth will have to face when he steps into the chief executive role on Oct. 23.
He will also have to grapple with a profit squeeze due to falling demand for Covid products and Walgreens’ rocky transition from being a major drugstore chain to a large health-care company. 
Wentworth, during the company’s earnings call Thursday, shared a story about how an employee at a store in Rochester, New York, “professionally and cheerfully” helped deliver a critical medication prescription for his mother. 
“It was the kind of experience I appreciate and everyone deserves,” Wentworth said in his first remarks as incoming CEO since Walgreens announced his appointment on Tuesday. 
He said committed pharmacists and other team members can collectively “improve the lives of each person who walks through our door in my mom’s hometown Walgreens in Rochester, and in every store we operate.” 

The experiences he has had with employees made his decision to join Walgreens “frankly, an easy one,” Wentworth added.
His remarks partly echoed a statement the company issued earlier this week in response to the walkouts. 
A Walgreens spokesperson touted the company’s pharmacy teams in the statement, noting that they work “tirelessly to serve our communities.”
But the spokesperson also acknowledged that the “last few years have required an unprecedented effort from our team members.” 
Walgreens is engaged and listening to the concerns of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, the spokesperson said.
But it’s unclear whether management has made any changes in response to any of those employees’ demands, which include more staff, payroll transparency, advance notice of staff and schedule changes and mandatory training for new hires, among other items. 
In addition to filling and verifying prescriptions, pharmacy employees often have to juggle patient phone calls, administer a growing number of vaccines this fall, work with insurance companies on issues such as copays and reimbursements, perform rapid Covid and flu testing and deal with angry customers who are seeing longer wait times due to understaffing. More

Recent strikes by Hollywood talent and autoworkers are weighing on business travel demand, Delta Air Lines said.
The carrier has an outsized exposure to the automotive and entertainment industries.
Delta President Hauenstein noted that demand from technology and financial services customers posted double-digit growth during the third quarter.

A Delta Airlines passenger jet approaches to land at LAX during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Los Angeles, California, U.S., April 7, 2021.
Mike Blake | Reuters

Recent strikes by Hollywood talent and United Auto Workers union members are a “drag” on business travel demand, which is otherwise recovering, Delta Air Lines President Glen Hauenstein said Thursday.
Delta has an outsized exposure to the automotive and entertainment industries, with a more than 70% market share at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport and a nearly 20% share at Los Angeles International Airport, more than any other carrier, according to airport data.

The strikes have had “a not insignificant change in the business travel to and from Los Angeles as well as now the UAW strike, which curtailed a significant amount of the business in Detroit,” Hauenstein said on an earnings call Thursday. “We are probably the most impacted by those two sectors.”
The United Auto Workers’ targeted strikes, which began after major Detroit automakers and the union failed to reach labor deals before a September contract expiration, are entering their fourth week — and escalating.
Hollywood writers earlier this week ratified a new three-year contract after nearly 150 days of work stoppage that suspended significant film and TV production.
But Hollywood actors, represented by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, are still on strike. And late Wednesday, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents production studios like Disney, Universal, Netflix and others, said talks have been been suspended with the two sides far apart on a deal.
Delta’s Hauenstein noted that demand from technology and financial services customers posted double-digit growth in the third quarter, contributing to an overall rebound for business travel.

A company survey of corporate customers found that a majority expect their travel to stay the same or increase in the last three months of this year and into 2024, Hauenstein said.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is a member of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. More

After just under two weeks, negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP broke down Wednesday night.
It appears that wages and artificial intelligence protections remain sticking points between actors and studios.
The strike will rage on, disrupting marketing campaigns and preventing production from commencing on many film and TV projects.

Members of the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild walk a picket line on Day 1 outside NBC Universal in New York City on July 14, 2023. 
Timothy A. Clary | AFP | Getty Images

Forget about a Hollywood ending for actors and studios — for now.
After just under two weeks, negotiations between the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers broke down Wednesday night.

It appears that wages and artificial intelligence protections remain sticking points between actors and studios.
The AMPTP claims that SAG-AFTRA’s offer would cost more than $800 million per year, a sum that studios said would “create an untenable economic burden.” SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating team countered on Thursday, accusing studios of using bully tactics to misrepresent the cost of the actor’s proposal, overstating the price by 60%.The two parties have also clashed on what guardrails should and should not be attached to the use of AI.
With the dissolution of talks, the strike will rage on, disrupting marketing campaigns and preventing production from commencing on a significant portion of Hollywood’s film and television projects.
While some talk shows, like those of late-night heavyweights Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert and John Oliver, returned following the WGA deal, most scripted programs remain dark. Some independent productions have managed to continue by agreeing to SAG-AFTRA’s interim agreement.
If negotiations do not continue or become resolved soon, more theatrical film release dates will be delayed, disrupting the box office, and television releases will be pushed.

Short-lived hope

Hollywood and industry observers had hoped negotiations would move quickly in the wake of the Writers Guild of America’s deal with the AMPTP last month. Writers officially ratified the new contract earlier this week.
But Wednesday’s bad turn dashed those hopes.
“After meaningful conversations, it is clear that the gap between the AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA is too great, and conversations are no longer moving us in a productive direction,” the AMPTP said in a statement Wednesday.
Meanwhile, SAG-AFTRA’s negotiators claim that the proposal from AMPTP was “shockingly, worth less than they proposed before the strike began.”
“These companies refuse to protect performers from being replaced by AI, they refuse to increase your wages to keep up with inflation, and they refuse to share a tiny portion of the immense revenue your work generates for them,” SAG-AFTRA negotiators wrote in a letter to striking actors.
The AMPTP said common issues, like general wage increases, SVOD residuals and viewership bonuses, were the same terms ratified by the Directors Guild of America and the WGA.
The WGA secured pay increases in each of the next three years, artificial intelligence restrictions and a new residual system for streaming based on viewership. The guild also negotiated higher contribution rates to health benefits and pensions, as well as a guaranteed number of writers in writers’ rooms for television shows.
SAG-AFTRA is looking to improve wages, working conditions and health and pension benefits, as well as establish guardrails for the use of AI in future television and film productions. Additionally, the union is seeking more transparency from streaming services about viewership so that residual payments can be made equitable to linear TV. The guild is also looking to standardize the self-tape process.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is a member of the AMPTP. More

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