A new pharmacy trade union, Action Pharmaceutique Libérale d'Union Syndicale (APLUS), has been launched in the face of what many French pharmacists see as an unprecedented attack on their profession.
The union's vice-president (Mr Marc Mackie, MRPharmS), said that the union aims to defend the interests of community pharmacists in the face of radical government reforms and is seeking contacts with trade unions in other European countries.
He said that APLUS felt let down by the established unions which had abandoned pharmacists in the face of government pressure. Up to 6,000 neighbourhood pharmacies could be forced to close.
The union is also pressing for the revision of regulations increasingly place administrative costs on the pharmacists' shoulders. According to Mr Mackie, these costs should be borne by the government.
A third bone of contention concerns profit margins. APLUS wants the whole system of remuneration reassessed and for the government to recognise pharmacy as a liberal profession rather than a trade.