Opiod Crisis and The IBT Fight

[222lifer]

A nice piece from Ken Hall.

https://teamster.org/news/2017/08/ke...d-drug-addicts

Sent from my SM-J327T using Tapatalk

[crazy]

I would like to see the lawyers go after the big drug companies like they did with Asbestos

[ABFwife]

I am impressed! We have a crisis of addiction in this country and something needs to be done now.

IBEW Local 98 says it’s preparing to file suit against drug companies joining litigation against opioid makers.

IBEW Local 98 Business Manager John Dougherty says “IBEW Local 98 will no longer allow the manufacturers and marketers of these deadly drugs to peddle their poison to our members without facing severe consequences.”

He says he’s sen too many IBEW members lose their lives to opioids. Dougherty says opioid addiction is a national epidemic and Big Pharma has to be accountable as opioid manufacturers and marketers.

IBEW Local Says It Will Sue Big Pharma Over Opioids – Workers Independent News

[crazy]

Bernie says he was going after Big Pharma,Trump said he was,the Teamsters have said the same thing but as we look all things remain the same.. Too much big Pharma money in Washington.. Things seem they will never change..

[ABFwife]

Bernie says he was going after Big Pharma,Trump said he was,the Teamsters have said the same thing but as we look all things remain the same.. Too much big Pharma money in Washington.. Things seem they will never change..

I don't think progress will be made overnight. As you said, big money involved.

[ABFwife]

Fighting the Opioid Epidemic by Targeting Big Pharma’s Bottom Line

Opioids now kill over 100 Americans every day. In a single year, opioids kill more Americans than died in the entire Vietnam and Iraq Wars. And while the underground drug trade is fueling this epidemic of medicalized self-destruction, the flow of black-market opioids is inseparable from its above-ground counterpart—the pharmaceutical companies that peddle the legal and FDA-approved pain killers like OxyContin and Vicodin. And now workers on the front lines of this crisis are challenging the nation’s biggest pushers to stop pumping deadly drugs into their neighborhoods.

The Teamsters, whose members have struggled with the crisis of both illegal and legal opioid abuse, are wielding their shareholder power to link Big Pharma’s primary distributors to the logistical chain swelling opioid markets to a breaking point. At the August shareholder’s meeting of pharmaceutical wholesaler McKesson, the union leadership, as direct share owners, called for reforms to the company’s supply-chain monitoring and rejected a pay raise for its CEO. They have issued a similar call before the board of drug giant AmerisourceBergen, demanding that the company investigate its sales practices and review its executive-compensation levels.

The Teamsters might be known for a tough blue-collar image, but members have lately been sharing heart-rending stories of how the trauma of opioid addiction has consumed their families. Many of the Rust Belt strongholds where their locals have community ties have seen a surge of overdose deaths, along with the joblessness and dwindling treatment resources that deepen their exposure to the crisis. The Teamsters see the massive opioid death toll as having structural roots in the overprescribing of painkillers. A profit-driven medical industry has for years been feeding medication dependencies that often rapidly spiral into illegal heroin use. The pattern of induced dependency is perpetuated by a severe lack of comprehensive, community-based social supports for treatment, preventive care, and basic economic aid in many struggling working-class regions.

https://www.thenation.com/article/fi...s-bottom-line/

[ABFwife]

Teamsters union claims big win vs. largest opioid distributor

WASHINGTON (PAI) — In what is a big win for shareholder activism, and in particular for Teamsters Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall, stockholders in the nation’s largest opioid distributor, McKesson, voted down the firm’s compensation policies and ordered the board to split the positions of chairman and CEO. The twin moves punished current boss John Hammergren for his failure to halt the company’s role in the opioid scourge.

“For the first time ever, shareholders voted to hold a company accountable for its role in the opioid epidemic,” said Hall, a West Virginian whose state has been hit notably hard by the plague.

“The country’s largest drug distributor cannot get away with ballooning executive pay and failures in” its president’s “oversight as Americans die every day from opioid addiction.”

Hall also said the vote “should serve as a warning” to the nation’s other big drug distributors that their shareholders, too, want to hold corporate conduct accountable.

Teamsters union claims big win vs. largest opioid distributor – People's World

[ABFwife]

McKesson Records Show Failed Opioid Oversight, Lawsuit Says

McKesson Corp.’s board failed to audit the company’s system to spot suspicious shipments of opioid-based painkillers even after agreeing to do so as part of a settlement, according to a summary of board minutes unsealed Friday in a shareholder lawsuit.

The suit, filed in October, alleges that McKesson directors paid scant attention to oversight of opioid sales after a 2008 settlement centering on the company’s insufficient monitoring of such shipments. The directors also disclaimed any responsibility for the growing opioid epidemic, seeing it as a “matter of public policy to be addressed by the federal and state governments,” the investor said in another unsealed portion of the complaint.

Delaware Chancery Judge Sam Glasscock III ordered the entire complaint to be made public, including excerpts of minutes from board and audit committee meetings, after large sections were filed confidentially.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...uty-on-opioids

[fxstc07]

There are several threads concerning McKesson. This distribution center is close to me, and I delivered there many times, years ago.

McKesson Corp., one of the nation’s largest drug distributors, told New Jersey regulators that it will close a Delran distribution center at the end of March, eliminating 102 jobs. Union employees at the facility are represented by Warehouse Employees Union Local 169, in Elkins Park, Pa.

McKesson closing Delran drug distribution center, 102 jobs eliminated

[ABFwife]

I am trying to keep this one thread for Teamster involvement and the opioid drug companies.

Teamsters, Members of Investors for Opioid Accountability Call for Reforms at AmerisourceBergen

https://teamster.org/sites/teamster....0215letter.pdf

https://teamster.org/news/2018/02/te...risourcebergen