Article Highlights:
- A labor union is organizing medical marijuana workers in Oakland, Calif., a move likely to aid efforts in the state to legalize marijuana, analysts say.
- United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5 in San Jose, Calif., is thought to be the first union to organize workers in a marijuana-related business, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday.
- The executive director of an Oakland non-profit medical cannabis dispensary seeking a city permit says he has 15 newly signed-up union employees ready to start work for a December opening.
A labor union is organizing medical marijuana workers in Oakland, Calif., a move likely to aid efforts in the state to legalize marijuana, analysts say.
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5 in San Jose, Calif., is thought to be the first union to organize workers in a marijuana-related business, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday.
The executive director of an Oakland non-profit medical cannabis dispensary seeking a city permit says he has 15 newly signed-up union employees ready to start work for a December opening.
"With full union health benefits and a pension," Carl Anderson said.
If California voters approve an initiative on the November ballot legalizing possession and use of small amounts of marijuana, thousands of new workers could be unionized, a Local 5 organizer said.
They would include retail clerks at dispensaries, cannabis-processing jobs, agricultural work for growers and security positions at dispensaries, Local 5 President Ron Lind said.
"These will be good union jobs with middle-class incomes," he said.
The union has not officially endorsed the November legalization initiative, but Lind said the union's national leadership is "supportive" of the local's efforts, the Chronicle reported.
