Posts Categorized: Cannabis

Earlier this month, several UFCW leaders and rank-and-file members attended the Black CannaBiz Expo and Conference in New Orleans, La., to share their unique perspectives on how racial and social equity in the cannabis industry can only be achieved by prioritizing workers’ rights. 

At the three-day conference, Aquila Barbosas Rodrigues from UFCW Local 1445, Zion Grae-El from UFCW Local 3000, and Aly Silver from UFCW Local 338 RWDSU-UFCW participated on a panel alongside International Representative Mecca Ross and CEO of Cannabliss and union advocate Norbert Pickett. 

The worker-led panel highlighted the essential role the UFCW plays in helping to build a more equitable cannabis industry from the ground-up. “I feel like unions are the great equalizers because they create generational wealth by giving us the promotions and the benefits and the raises that we deserve,” said Silver. “Union contracts close gender and racial gaps… and that is essential for the Black and Brown workers in this industry.”

In addition to Friday’s worker panel, LaQuita Honeysucker, Director of the Civil Rights and Community Action Department, and Ademola Oyefeso, International Vice President and Director of the Legislative and Political Action Department, participated in a Town Hall that focused on racial and social equity in the cannabis industry, the necessity of federal and state cannabis legislation that prioritizes workers’ rights, and the role that UFCW plays in ensuring that every cannabis workers has the right to a good union job. 

You can watch the Equity For Workers in Today’s Cannabis Industry: A Workers Panel here. 

UFCW Local 27 officials and members joined Delaware Governor John Carney on Oct. 7 as he signed a medical cannabis labor peace agreement bill (SB 280) into law. SB 280 requires medical cannabis companies to sign a labor peace agreement with a union or risk losing their license and signals a growing insistence by state and local regulators that employers doing business in Delaware accept pro-union requirements.

SB 280 requires medical marijuana compassion centers and safety compliance facilities that have 20 or more employees to have a labor peace agreement with a bona fide labor organization. SB 280 also includes the following provisions:  

• Prohibits the labor organization and members from engaging in picketing, work stoppages, boycotts, or any other economic interference with the business of the employer.
• Prohibits the employer from disrupting efforts by the bona fide labor organization to communicate with and attempt to organize and represent employees.
• Provides the labor organization access at reasonable times to areas in which employees work, for the purpose of meeting with employees to discuss their right to representation, employment rights under state law, and terms and conditions of employment. It does not force or encourage workers to join a union; rather, it gives them the ability to consider unionization without interference from the employer.

“This is great for workers,” said UFCW Local 27 President Jason Chorpenning. “They will now have an opportunity to join a labor union and improve their lives and their families’ lives without any harassment from the employers.”