Business & Tech

Local Iron Workers Receive Work After CVS Picket While Many Others Still Battle for Jobs

CVS agreed to use more local workers at the construction site of the North Canton drug store after the March 17 picket, but more pickets are likely throughout Stark County

Recent pickets at the CVS construction site at Main and Applegrove streets have paid off for some local workers who participated.

North Canton resident Dave Kirven, a business agent with Plumbers and Pipe Fitters, said CVS awarded work to the Iron Workers Local 550 out of Canton.

He and several about how the company refused to use more local workers. Instead, it took on workers from Cleveland and Michigan.

CVS’ Caremark is a prescription provider for many of those local workers, and Kirven said his group’s trustees still went with Caremark, although it costs more than the other prescription providers. If some of the local workers’ bids weren’t the lowest, Kirven wonders why CVS didn’t reciprocate and take on the local workers anyway.

“The issue is, why aren’t they giving us the same opportunity that they got when they came to our trustees?” Kirven said.

When reached for comment March 17, Mike DeAngelis, director of public relations for CVS, said this in an email statement:

As part of this process, we consider any bid received from a qualified union contractor that is reasonable, or even close to the lowest bid on a contract. In fact, our North Canton construction project will be using a significant number of local union workers for jobs including carpentry, electrical, demolition, carpeting/flooring, among other work. These union subcontractors all won these jobs through our open and competitive bidding process.

The plumbers’ union bids were not successful. We cannot award jobs for bids that are unreasonably high. CVS has a responsibility as a business to its customers, shareholders and employees to control costs.

Kirven said CVS’ response still doesn’t explain why it’s OK for the workers to pay more to have CVS Caremark coverage, but it’s not OK for CVS to pay more to ensure local men and women work on their North Canton building.

When contacted again, DeAngelis said his original statement still applies.

Kirven said he plans to attend more pickets at the Massillon, North Canton and Jackson Township CVS construction sites.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from North Canton