Posts Categorized: Member Resources

UFCW members can now earn a free online Cannabis Business Fundamentals Certificate through our union’s Free College Benefit Program.

There are over 30 states that have legalized medical marijuana and, each year, more states are legalizing it for recreational use. As this industry continues to expand, the UFCW’s partnership with Eastern Gateway Community College (EGCC) can help you kick off your career in this emerging sector.

This program is fully online and consists of the following topics:

•           Introduction to Cannabis

•           Cannabis Law and Policies

•           Cannabis Symptom Management

•           Cannabis Retail Customer Support

This certificate is embedded in EGCC’s Business Management degree and will best position students for gainful employment in a dispensary and provide a jumping-off point into more advanced studies in horticulture, pharmacology, and other advanced topics.

UFCW members and qualifying family members are eligible to enroll in the program.

To take advantage of this benefit, you will need to apply to EGCC here. For more information or additional support, call 888-590-9009.

Graphics and other material to help locals promote the new Cannabis Business Fundamentals Certificate are available here.

UFCW OUTreach is offering five scholarships for rank and file UFCW members to attend next year’s Creating Change Conference in New Orleans. The conference, which will take place on Jan. 12 to 16, 2022, is organized by the national LGBTQ Task Force.

This is the fifth year that UFCW OUTreach has provided scholarships to the Creating Change Conference, which is the foremost political, leadership, and skills-building conference for the LGBTQ+ social justice movement. Scholarship recipients will learn about a broad range of social justice issues and develop skills to bring back to their workplaces and local unions.  Past session topics have included labor, gender equality, community organizing, criminal justice, immigration and more.

UFCW OUTreach Executive Board members attending the conference each year have served as a key voice for issues impacting hard-working families and the labor movement. Providing scholarships to UFCW members helps our union family to strengthen new member recruitment and develop new leaders within our union and in the broader LGBTQ+ movement.

The submission deadline for the five scholarships is Monday, Nov. 15. You can get more information about UFCW OUTreach scholarships to this important conference here.

If you have any questions or want to learn more about UFCW OUTreach, please contact Michele Kessler at MKessler@ufcw1776.org or Kim Frost at Kim@local1102.org.