“They basically thought it was impossible when all these companies were fighting, and now the workers are winning.”

By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent

Missouri cannabis workers are trying to turn a string of recent union victories into broader organizing momentum across the state.

High Profile Cannabis dispensary workers in Columbia last week unanimously ratified what union officials say is the state’s first collective bargaining contract for cannabis workers, securing higher pay and paid vacation time.

“Now for the first time in Missouri, dispensary workers are FEELING THAT CONTRACT HIGH!” the United Food and Commercial Workers International Local 655 posted on its Facebook page Wednesday.

And in St. Louis, Proper Brands post-harvest workers—who process and manufacture products—won their election to unionize last week, and Vibe Cannabis post-harvest workers are scheduled to hold an election at the end of July.

“I’ve been hearing from more and more production and dispensary workers all over the state who want to find out what they need to do in order to organize their workplaces,” said Sean Shannon, organizing director at UFCW Local 655. “They basically thought it was impossible when all these companies were fighting, and now the workers are winning.”

After Missouri legalized recreational marijuana in 2023, the state saw a surge in cannabis jobs that was soon followed by a push to unionize.

Several groups of workers endured yearslong legal battles and company pushback. This year, some are finally seeing the results.

Sierra Lutz was among the employees who organized the High-Profile union petition in 2023. She’s now a trimming tech at Vibe Cannabis, where she is leading the unionization campaign. She and her fellow post-harvest workers filed a petition to unionize last month.

After hearing the news about High Profile’s contract, Lutz applauded the workers’ dedication.

“I’m so proud of their perseverance,” she said. “They deserve every second of this glory.”

Her work with High Profile taught her some key lessons she’s bringing to the Vibe campaign, she said. The main one: “patience is everything.”

“The workplace won’t change overnight, but change will come,” Lutz said. “That’s been my biggest point I’ve been communicating to Vibe employees.”

Other Vibe employees are also organizing veterans, after participating in the unionization effort at BeLeaf Medical’s Sinse cultivation facility in St. Louis. In May, Sinse workers won a significant legal precedent for post-harvest workers after nearly three-year battle, with a decision affirming their right to unionize under federal labor law.

“More and more workers are feeling empowered,” Shannon said, “and I believe we’re going to see a huge wave and a rise in workers rising together.”

‘A seat at the table’

Katie Hazelwonder, a trainer in Proper’s post-harvest department, said she was overjoyed that workers voted 25-21 to unionize on July 1.

“We put a lot of work into this, and I’m so thankful to everyone that stood together to make this happen,” Hazelwonder said. “That’s honestly the only way we got through this, we stood together and never backed down.”

Hazelwonder acknowledged this was a stressful month for “both sides of the vote,” but said she believes the effort will result in better pay, job security and working conditions.

“This victory is about all of us having a voice and having a seat at the table,” she said, “and we’re looking forward to negotiating a fair contract that reflects the hard work and dedication of everyone.”

John Pennington, founder and CEO of Proper Brands, said in an email to The Independent that the company respects the post-harvest team’s decision and their right to determine how they want to be represented.

“Proper Brands has always believed that our people are the foundation of our success, and that commitment remains unchanged,” Pennington said. “As we move forward, our focus will be on building a constructive relationship rooted in mutual respect, open communication, and our shared goal of producing the highest-quality cannabis products for Missouri.”

Pennington also said the company remains committed to “providing a safe, supportive workplace where every team member has the opportunity to grow and contribute to our continued success.”

“We are pleased to be a part of this process,” he said, “and look forward to working with the UFCW.”

Hazelwonder previously told The Independent that the Proper team was encouraged by a May decision from the National Labor Relations Board, which decides labor disputes and sets national policy on union organizing.

The board rejected another St. Louis marijuana company’s argument that post-harvest employees are agricultural workers, who are excluded from a federal law that protects most private-sector employees’ right to unionize without fear of retaliation.

“Thanks to the recent NLRB ruling we have the opportunity to sit at the table and make it better for us and the others to come,” Hazelwonder said.

Vibe

At Vibe, Lutz said she and other production workers were told they’d have the federal Juneteenth holiday off this year. But then a few days before the holiday, she says managers told them they would have to work. They later learned the company paid for another department’s employees to go to Six Flags theme park on Juneteenth.

It’s part of the favoritism, such as free meals and other perks, her team doesn’t get to enjoy.

“I love that that department gets all of that extra stuff, like, genuinely,” Lutz said, “but our department gets absolutely nothing.”

Juneteenth was the last straw for post-harvest employees who were on the fence about unionizing, Lutz said, and Shannon filed the petition to unionize on June 18.

Katie Parker, human resources manager for Vibe, said the company had no comment on the petition or the issues raised by employees.

Since the petition was filed, Lutz said workers have been required to meet individually with two consultants, who told employees the company hired them to educate workers on the union process.

Lutz works in the trim department, where she operates the Mobius trimming machine, she said. During the summer, she said, the room is often 80 degrees with poor air circulation.

“They’ve told us many times that the thing that they are worried about getting above 80 degrees in that room is not our wellbeing as employees,” she said, “but the wellbeing of the product.”

She said she and her colleagues do challenging work that’s vital to the quality ofVibe’s product, but they don’t see the pay raises other departments do.

Bird Herndon, who has worked in Vibe’s post-harvest department for about a year, agreed with Lutz.

“Cannabis cultivation and processing are physically demanding and almost always impact respiratory health,” Herndon said. “Making sure we have consistent access to safety equipment like respirators is a top priority.”

Herndon said a structured collective bargaining process would allow the team to “work collaboratively with management to formalize, streamline, and uphold high-standard safety procedures and equipment protocols for everyone.”

Among the group’s demands is the option of a 401(k) so they can plan for retirement.

Vibe employees have been in touch with organizers at Proper and BeLeaf, Herndon said, to learn from their experiences.

“We can all help each other,” Herndon said. “More minds on the problem leads to a better solution for everyone.”

This story was first published by Missouri Independent.

Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.

Source link

“We already got our raises. Our [personal time off] is taking effect. Bonuses have been handed out…and job security is in place.”

By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent

It’s been nearly a month since Key Cannabis Dispensary employees in Springfield ratified their first collective bargaining agreement that includes wage increases, bonuses and additional time off to workers.

And employees are feeling pretty high.

“Now that the contract has been ratified, we’re rocking and rolling already,” said Sally Powell, a retail associate at Key Cannabis Dispensary. “We already got our raises. Our [personal time off] is taking effect. Bonuses have been handed out…and job security is in place.”

Powell was among the employees who in 2022 voted 6-3 to unionize, under the representation of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 2.

The agreement is a milestone in Missouri’s still-young marijuana industry, where dispensaries have proliferated since recreational sales began in 2023 but organized labor has made only limited inroads. The Springfield workers are just the second group of cannabis employees in the state to secure a union contract, and their four-year path to one offers a glimpse at how difficult it can be to turn a successful organizing vote into tangible workplace protections.

The delay was partly because the previous owners, Bloom Medicinal, sold the dispensary in January 2024 to Elevate Cannabis.

Nico Pento, chief legal officer for Elevate Cannabis, said it was a unique situation because the company was “thrown into the middle” of the unionization process, as part of its acquisition of a few facilities from Bloom.

“A lot of what we settled on is not much different than what we do as an organization,” Pento said. “But, I respect the right of everybody to want to be represented by a union if they so choose. I’m happy we could come to an amicable agreement.”

While the company has a merit increase system in wages, Pento said this store’s employees were on a hiring freeze during the lengthy collective bargaining process.

“We needed to get through the entire [collective bargaining agreement] negotiations before we could make any adjustments to compensation,” Pento said, “so the increases that we gave them were really more of a true-up to get them to where we felt they would have been had they not chosen to unionize.”

The ratification bonus was similarly something the company decided was the “right thing to do,” he said.

“They had gone over two years without getting a wage increase,” he said, “so we wanted to find a way to properly compensate them for that kind of two-year delay.”

Powell said the contract creates more stable scheduling and clearer disciplinary guidelines. One of the most important provisions for Powell were the non-discrimination, anti-harassment and inclusion protections.

“With the cannabis industry just being a super inclusive industry as is,” she said, “it’s nice to just have some extra language to protect that. Being gay myself, we have quite a few gender-fluid people in our facility. It’s just been great to be able to be your true self and not have to worry about who you are.”

Elevate Cannabis is owned by a group of family and friends based out of the Kansas city area, he said, and the company has 14 dispensaries and two manufacturing and cultivation facilities. It is among the largest cannabis companies in Missouri.

Another reason it took so a long time to get a union contract ratified, Pento said, is because the labor negotiation process “is definitely a little old school.”

“Everything is in person,” he said. “You’re trading drafts back and forth in person. It’s not like a typical, you know, sale or acquisition where you’re exchanging red lines and can bang it out in a couple weeks.”

However, Pento commended the union representative, Saul Guerrero, for being reasonable and easy to communicate with.

Chad Price, UFCW Local 2 director of collective bargaining and retail servicing, praised the workers for their hard work and dedication.

“We want to welcome them to our union family,” Price said. “Together, we will continue building contracts that improve lives and strengthen our workplaces for years to come.”

This story was first published by Missouri Independent.

Source link

“Verano did not want any of these terms. Had it been free to do so, it would not have accepted any of them. In fact, it would have signed no [labor peace agreement] at all.”

By Sophie Nieto-Muñoz, New Jersey Monitor

New Jersey’s mandate that cannabis companies must sign agreements with labor unions is facing another legal challenge from one of the industry’s largest operators.

Verano, which runs four ZenLeaf dispensaries in New Jersey, is suing the state’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission, arguing the state can’t force it to sign what’s called a labor peace agreement with a union. Verano’s labor peace agreements require it to remain neutral when it comes to union organizing and bar Verano from making negative statements about the union, among other things.

The state’s cannabis regulation law requires cannabis companies to maintain these agreements to obtain and keep a license to sell cannabis. Verano’s lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in New Jersey, alleges this violates the National Labor Relations Act.

“Verano did not want any of these terms,” the complaint states. “Had it been free to do so, it would not have accepted any of them. In fact, it would have signed no [labor peace agreement] at all.”

Verano notes in the complaint that the commission has a history of enforcing the agreement condition and will dole out civil penalties when companies don’t comply. The commission fined Curaleaf, a major competitor of Verano, $610,000 in 2025 for failing to maintain its labor peace agreement.

Verano said if it loses its license, it will be forced out of business, forced to fire its workers, and “sacrifice its accumulated goodwill in the local market.”

The company holds licenses for dispensaries in Elizabeth, Lawrence Township, Neptune Township and Mount Holly, plus a cultivation and processing facility in Branchburg, with a total staff of about 300. The Neptune license was up for renewal August 1, with Mount Holly’s renewal coming up in November.

Verano’s labor peace agreement is with Local 360 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

Verano is asking a judge to declare that the labor peace mandate can’t be used as grounds to deny, suspend, revoke or refuse renewal of its licenses, and that its agreements with Local 360 are voidable, which would allow the company to walk away from the union relationship.

Spokespeople for the union, which is named as a defendant in Verano’s lawsuit, and for the Cannabis Regulatory Commission did not respond to requests for comment. The commission is scheduled to meet for a public meeting on Thursday.

Verano’s lawsuit relies heavily on a recent decision in Curaleaf’s legal challenge to labor peace agreements. In that case, a federal judge in May denied the Cannabis Regulatory Commission’s move to dismiss Curaleaf’s lawsuit and said labor peace agreements are preempted by federal law.

Verano argued its agreements with the union should now be considered void, claiming that both sides signed them under the belief that it was required under law, that Verano only signed under “illegitimate coercion,” and that the agreement’s entire purpose—regulatory compliance—no longer exists because of the ruling in the Curaleaf case.

New Jersey started requiring these agreements in 2018, when the state Department of Health began scoring cannabis license applications and awarded 30 points to companies that signed one, which effectively made the agreement a necessity. It was later written into the state’s cannabis law, which led to recreational dispensaries opening their doors in April 2022.

This story was first published by New Jersey Monitor.

Source link

The WNBA seems positioned to join the ranks of sports leagues that have revised their marijuana policies, with details about negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement (CBA)—which has now reportedly been agreed to in principle—indicating that the women’s basketball league is moving to eliminate cannabis testing for players.

As part of the negotiations between the Women’s National Basketball Players’ Association and WNBA, the league has reportedly put forward a number of potential policy changes, with proposals that touch on everything from salary caps to revenue sharing to travel expenses to drug testing rules.

ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne posted screenshots of slides which were reportedly presented to players during a meeting with league representatives last month. In one slide titled “WNBA CBA Proposal: Summary of CBA Improvements,” a list of 37 potential compromises includes an item that says simply, “Elimination of Marijuana Testing.”

Current WNBA policy treats cannabis significantly more restrictively compared to the NBA—and multiple other professional sports leagues beyond basketball that have also adopted reforms amid the state legalization movement. Marijuana remains listed as a “prohibited substance” for WNBA players, who are still tested for THC metabolites. First-time offenses generally result in treatment referrals, but repeated violations can lead to fines and suspensions.

After last month’s WNBA CBA presentation, the players association came back with a counterproposal that included certain concessions around issues such as revenue sharing and housing, ESPN reported, but the latest version of the deal that was agreed to in principle this week hasn’t yet been released so it’s unclear what it specifically proposes as far as marijuana testing rules are concerned.

The league did give some indication about its willingness to accept the changing tides around cannabis in 2024, when the WNBA team New York Liberty entered into a partnership with a CBD beverage company.

But CBD, a non-intoxicating cannabinoid, is federally legal—and the sponsorship arrangement didn’t change the fact that players would still be tested and potentially penalized for testing positive for THC.

Meanwhile, Brittney Griner—a WNBA player who was previously incarcerated in Russia over possession of marijuana—pulled out of an appearance at a cannabis event last year after discovering what she felt was a threatening message in her hotel room.

Conference attendees had hoped to hear from Griner about the nature of her incarceration in Russia, which helped fuel international debate about cannabis prohibition laws domestically and abroad.

How other sports leagues have navigated marijuana policy for players amid the reform movement.

NBA, for its part, removed marijuana from the banned substances list for players in 2023, and it also freed them up to invest in and promote cannabis companies.

The NFL, meanwhile, reached an agreement with its players union in 2024 to further reform its marijuana policies, significantly reducing fines for positive tests while increasing the allowable THC threshold for players. About four years after NFL ended the practice of suspending players over cannabis or other drugs as part of a collective bargaining agreement, the league again revised its Substances of Abuse Policy and Performance Enhancing Substances Policy.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 2024 voted to remove marijuana from its banned substances list for Division I players.

The reform builds on a 2022 change that increased the allowable THC threshold for college athletes, aligning NCAA’s rules with those of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

In October, Nevada regulators officially adopted a rule change that will protect athletes from being penalized for using or possessing marijuana in compliance with state law.

The head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) blasted the “unfair” ban on marijuana for athletes competing in international sport events, including the Olympics that were underway in Paris at the time of the comments.

USADA CEO Travis Tygart said it was “disappointing” that WADA has maintained the cannabis prohibition based on what he considers a misguided justification.

WADA did carry out a review into its marijuana policy at the request of USADA and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) following the controversial suspension of U.S. runner Sha’Carri Richardson, who was barred from participating in the Olympics in 2021 after she tested positive for THC. Richardson said she used cannabis to cope with the recent passing of her mother.

While UFC announced in late 2023 that it was formally removing marijuana from its modified banned substances list for athletes, the league notified participants that the reform didn’t apply under California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) rules.

UFC advised fighters that they could be subject to a $100 fine by CSAS if they tested over 150 nanograms of THC per milliliter ahead of the UFC 298 event that took place in February.

The New York-based clubs are partnering with Mynd Drinks, a hemp-based CBD sparkling beverage company that also made history in 2024 when it became an official partner of the Major League Baseball (MLB) team the Chicago Cubs.

That year, NFL announced it was partnering with Canadian researchers on a clinical trial to test the safety and efficacy of CBD for pain management and neuroprotection from concussions—key issues for many football players who experience injuries as part of the game.

Separately, NFL and the Denver Broncos in 2024 asked a federal court to reject a player’s lawsuit alleging discrimination over penalties he incurred due to positive THC tests from his prescribed use of a synthetic cannabinoid.

In a joint motion to dismiss filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, the league and team defended their marijuana policy for players, affirming it’s their view that use of cannabis can lead to on-field injuries, poor job performance and “alienation of the fans.”

Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.

Source link