As the U.S. cannabis industry has grown, so has the industry’s participation in organized labor unions, a development worth noting in wake of the Labor Day weekend.
Just this year alone, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which is probably the biggest force of organized labor in the sector, and as the cannabis industry has grown, so has the union’s membership and power, has established a membership footprint of more than 10,000 in the cannabis industry, spread across 22 states plus the District of Columbia.
In the first quarter of 2024, the UFCW gained another 365 members, won 17 elections and ratified 12 contracts, a union spokesperson said.
Megan Caravalho, the national campaign coordinator for the UFCW’s cannabis program, spoke with Green Market Report in advance of the three-day holiday weekend for an update on the union’s focus on marijuana businesses.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Has the UFCW kept busy organizing cannabis workers through 2024?
We’ve been in the cannabis space for almost two decades. Certainly the cannabis industry and our involvement in it has changed over time as more states have regulated cannabis.
We represent cannabis workers in basically every state where there’s a legal market. We represent more than 10,000 workers across the country, from cultivation to processing and manufacturing to retail and distribution, cannabis testing labs, and certainly the interest of workers forming a union has always been there.
It really started to increase in 2020 and 2021, and we’ve organized thousands of workers every year since then. Here, I’ll give you some breaking news: We just filed for our first election in Montana this morning (Friday). So we represent workers in red states and blue states and every state in between.
What are some of the top priorities for cannabis workers, especially as clashes between organized labor and marijuana business interests seem to have become more common?
Our members continue to be just incredibly passionate about this industry and their jobs. They want to be able to stay in this industry. They don’t want it to be kind of an industry where they cycle through jobs and jump from one to another or from one industry to another.
Some of the common issues that we hear from workers, certainly workers want to be paid a wage that they feel like is reflective of their skills.
Then safety in the cannabis industry is a huge issue, and it’s not just at the processing and cultivation facilities. It’s an issue for our dispensary members and our delivery drivers. I think the industry is growing so rapidly that sometimes safety of the workers is not always a top concern for some of these companies.
Is there anything particularly different about the cannabis industry as opposed to more mainstream trades?
I’ve been an organizer for more than 16 years, and I’ve organized in a variety of industries. The cannabis industry is not special in how they union bust. They’re hiring the same union busters that we’re seeing at Amazon and Starbucks, and they’re using the same tactics.
Our organizing teams have been successful in preparing workers for the contentiousness that can come with the union campaign. But it’s really hard for any worker to say, “Hey, listen, I really like my job. I’m doing this because I think this is going to be what’s best for me and my coworkers and my patients and my customers and my community and my family.”
Any other just general comment on unionizing work in the cannabis sector, given the Labor Day holiday?
The UFCW has often said that forming a union is an act of love for the cannabis industry. It is a way to make sure that workers’ voices are heard. We hear plenty from the perspective of business owners and patients, but often workers are left out of the conversation.
When workers join together and form their union, they have a much stronger voice, and that is really how they will not be left behind as this industry continues to grow and change. And certainly this industry has a lot of growing and changing left to do.
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