Monthly Archives: February 2015

UFCW Local 1208 members hosted their first Deferred Action for Parents (DAP) session on Saturday, February 21, as part of the UFCW’s Union Citizenship Action Network (UCAN) program. In partnership with the AFL-CIO and the Latin American Coalition, community members and plant workers participated in the first workshop that is part of a series of immigration sessions. The event comes a few months after President Obama’s executive action on immigration that provided relief to immigrant workers, families, and communities. The DAP session hosted by UFCW Local 1208 is just one of the continued efforts to inform UFCW members, their families, and their communities about immigration opportunities despite legal challenges in states like Texas. The next session in Tar Heel, N.C., will be on Saturday, March 21.

For more information about DAP, visit the UFCW Immigration Guide site. If you are interested in sample documents that can help in this process, please contact Amy Gray at agray@ufcw.org. In addition, DAP flyers in English and Spanish are available on the UFCW Political Toolkit at www.ufcwtoolkit.com.

If your local union is interested in hosting a training or taking advantage of upcoming immigration training opportunities, please contact Eduardo Peña at epena@ufcw.org.

Workers at Minnesota Medical Solutions, LLC, one of Minnesota’s two approved medical cannabis manufacturers, ratified their first union contract.

As Minnesota prepares for legal medical cannabis sales in the state to start on July 1^st, workers in the up-and-coming industry are already speaking out for a union voice. Last week, workers at Minnesota Medical Solutions, LLC, one of Minnesota’s two approved medical cannabis manufacturers, ratified their first union contract. The workers voted earlier this month to join UFCW Local 1189.

These new UFCW members are doing their part to shape Minnesota’s medical cannabis industry to support both working families and patient families. The contract guarantees family-supporting wages for all workers, from custodian to pharmacy technician.

The new contract will guarantee workers a wide range of benefits: employer paid family health insurance, paid parental leave, tuition reimbursement, paid vacations, holidays and sick time, contributions to their 401A/K accounts, along and guaranteed wage rates and progression increases.

Minnesota Medical Solutions has a production facility in Edina, Minn., and is expected to open four dispensaries this summer.

The UFCW represents thousands of medical cannabis workers in six states and the District of Columbia. UFCW members in the cannabis industry work predominantly in dispensaries, coffee shops, bakeries, patient identification centers, hydroponics stores, and growing and training facilities. Our union has been a key leader in coalitions and advocacy groups that work for real change at all levels of policy and has been instrumental in working to advocate for the good jobs provided by the medical cannabis industry.

For more information on organizing efforts in the medical cannabis information, please visit Cannabis Workers Rising.