Nearly two months after adult recreational weed sales launched statewide on April 21, two of eight major cannabis companies now selling both medical and adult weed have gone fully union.
And four more are currently in major negotiations to go the same route, which collectively, could bring 250 new workers under the union umbrella, according to Hugh Giordano, Director of Organizing for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 360, which represents the state’s cannabis workers, as well as other retail, hospital, manufacturing and public sector employees.
The multi-state operators, also known as alternative treatment centers, in deep talks with UFCW-Local 360 are Ascend, Acreage, Columbia Care and GTI.
“We hope to have all contracts, currently being negotiated, signed by Labor Day,” Giordano told NJ Advance Media on Tuesday. “That’s our goal. That way, what better way to celebrate Labor Day than with your first union contract. To me that solidifies what that day represents.”
Verano, under the Zen Leaf banner, signed a collective bargaining agreement earlier this year for its dispensaries in Lawrence and Elizabeth and all of its cultivation sites statewide.