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Union workers accuse Express Scripts of "corporate greed"

Union members rally outside of Express Scripts HQ
Adam Allington, STL Public Radio
Union members rally outside of Express Scripts HQ

By Adam Allington, St. Louis Public Radio

St. Louis, MO – Union employees were bused in from Pennsylvania to picket outside of St. Louis County-based Express Scripts on Monday.

The workers say the company is threatening to cut benefits during a time of record profits.

Members of the Service Employees International Union say up to 1200 employees at Express Scripts' Bensalem, Pennsylvania facility have been asked to take pension, wage and health care cuts.

The workers say the proposed cuts come less than one year after the company achieved 51% increase in revenue of $550 million.

Company spokesman Thom Gross defends the company's position, saying cost-cutting is a successful business strategy.

"We're one of the only sectors of health-care that has a track record of being able to drive out costs," says Gross. "The way we do that is we have operating efficiencies and we control our own costs and that includes labor costs."

Gross says Express Scripts is simply trying to bring Bensalem's costs in line with the company's other locations.

But talk of cuts and firings during a time of profits and expansion didn't sit right with Pam Rogers. Rogers works for Express Scripts as a data-entry technician.

"They have plenty of accounts coming in, all we're asking is that they spread the wealth and let all of us have some of it," says Rogers. "Instead they want to close us down to work it out better somewhere else. You know, we don't want to be part on the unemployment rolls. We don't want to be part of the statistics."

Express Scripts says contract negotiations have been extended for three months and rumors of closings and layoffs are only speculation.

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