Connecticut has only one cannabis workers’ union, announced earlier this month. Cannabis workers in nearby states, which legalized cannabis about the same time as Connecticut, have been organized for far longer and in much greater numbers.
The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which organized 48 workers at an Advanced Grow Labs cannabis cultivation facility in West Haven, helped at least 10 groups of workers to organize in New York state and double that in New Jersey.
In those states, the workers in the medical cannabis market were organized, but UFCW opted not to follow that strategy in Connecticut, according to Ademola Oyefeso, UFCW International vice president, legislative and political action department director and head of the union’s cannabis campaign.
“Yes, we could try. But you don’t want to try knowing that the deck could be stacked against you. It’s better to wait,” he said. “So we waited until we were able to change the regulatory landscape so that we can move forward.”
That change came with recreational cannabis.
“We were talking to the workers the whole time and building a consensus, figuring out what folks needed and how to move forward,” he said. “But then, when we were able to change the regulatory framework, we were able to use the relationships we already had to start organizing.”
UFCW, Oyefeso said, has been organizing cannabis workers for a while now.
“It was 2010 when we organized our first unit,” he said.
Since then, the landscape has changed considerably. As more states have legalized medical cannabis and then recreational, more workers have been organized. Simultaneously, the culture of the business changed.
“When the industry first started, the industry was run by people who believed in pop culture, who were former cannabis lovers, who were pushing legalization, who believed cannabis was a plant with healing properties,” Oyefeso said.
Nowadays, large corporations run the industry, he said. “Now the industry is very different. You have a professional class. You have millions and billions of dollars pouring into it. So you have all the people that come along with it. You have accountants, people who probably never used cannabis before but who were in it for financial reasons.”
UFCW represents workers in a variety of fields, but Oyefeso said cannabis is not always analogous to other agricultural, manufacturing or retail markets. It’s vertically integrated, state to state.
“In most industries, you’ll have meatpacking workers who process cows, pigs, whatever, but they’re also not connected to the people who are selling the pigs, cows wherever. You might have people who make Post cereal. They’re not making the Post cereal and then are connected to their coworker who is selling the Post cereal,” he said. “It’s usually in different companies. In cannabis, it’s all usually one company.”
How vertically integrated a state’s cannabis industry is largely depends on the way laws and regulations were crafted. Cannabis is legal in many states but remains federally illegal. That means every state’s framework is unique and that unions are organizing workers in a newly developing industry.
Oyefeso likened it to the beginning of the automotive industry.
“We’re at the beginning of this industry,” he said. “We’re seeing the industry start, and that’s where you see the vertical integration. Probably over time, things will splinter into different pieces as legalization occurs, as the industry matures.”
Connecticut’s cannabis laws stipulate that every cannabis establishment in Connecticut is required to have a labor peace agreement. However, as UFCW Local 919 Director of Organizing Emily Sabo explained, that does not mean a union will form.
“A labor peace agreement means that an operator will remain neutral and fair if workers want to form a union,” she said. “In return, the union agrees, and the workers are agreeing not to picket, no work stoppages, strikes, etc., in exchange for the neutrality.”
Oyefeso said cannabis union labor peace agreements — which are also law in New York and New Jersey, among other states — “level the playing field.”
“A lot of the larger employers, their goal is to get as much money as possible, and so their anti-union tactics are still there,” he said. “We still have to go through talking to workers who have a boss that tells them, ‘Organizing? Oh, you don’t want to separate from the employer. We’ll be your best friend.’ I think workers have learned from years of hearing that that that’s not always the case.”
Connecticut’s first cannabis union and the state’s labor peace agreement do not mean it will be easy for more cannabis unions to launch, Oyefeso said: “We also have to fight. The more victories we have, the tougher the next one is.”
Connecticut has set aside cannabis-related licenses specifically for individuals and businesses located in the communities most impacted by the war on drugs. Oyefeso said social equity is not only a question of licensing businesses in certain communities but also the quality of the jobs created.
“The real equity is not just in the licensing; it’s also in the workforce. That’s where the real creation of equity happens,” he said. “If Connecticut gives out 100 licenses, but in those licenses 10,000 people are employed, if you don’t make sure 10,000 good jobs are created, is equity really achieved?”
H/T: www.newstimes.com
