Holistic Industries Cannabis Workers Vote to Remove UFCW Union

A majority of production employees at cannabis company Holistic Industries’ Monson, MA facility have requested a vote to remove United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1459 union officials from their workplace.

Packaging associate Scott Browne submitted the union decertification petition to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on behalf of his colleagues with free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, according to the foundation.

The NLRB is the agency responsible for enforcing federal labor law, a task that includes administering votes to install (or “certify”) or remove (or “decertify”) unions. The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) stipulates that a decertification petition must contain signatures from at least 30% of employees in a work unit to prompt a decertification election, according to the foundation.

Browne far exceeded this threshold, submitting a show of interest that contained signatures from over 70% of his work unit.

What Happens Next?

According to Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation, if the UFCW union is removed, everything will go back to what it was before the union got involved.

“The employees will talk to management directly and discuss the terms and conditions of employment,” Mix said. “One of the interesting things about this is that it’s kind of a shadow of all these arrangements as it relates to the unionization of cannabis workers.”

Many states have laws in place where in order to get a license to distribute, produce or sell cannabis, you must agree to a Labor Peace Agreement, according to Mix. This means that as long as cannabis business owners do what their told, no “problems” will occur.

“For example, in CA, CT, NY, OR, RI and WA, in order to get a cannabis license, businesses need to allow the unionization of its employees,” he says. “With this situation in MA, they don’t have the same requirement for unionization. So, it will be interesting to see what would happen if the workers are successful in decertifying the union.”

Cannabis Workers Stripped of Freedom

Foundation staff attorneys recently assisted employees of Green Thumb Industries – a New Jersey-based cannabis company – in filing a petition to remove UFCW union officials from power at their facility. Foundation attorneys have also opposed state legislative schemes that would require cannabis companies to grant union bosses special access to their workers just as a condition of operating.

These misleadingly labeled “labor peace agreements” infringe workers’ right to freely decide for or against union control. Massachusetts legislators filed a bill last legislative session to establish such a framework.

“Holistic Industries workers have joined the groundswell of workers nationwide who are exercising their right to declare independence from union bosses who don’t represent their interests,” says Mix. “While we’re confident that they will succeed in their effort to oust UFCW officials, union-label legislators are trying to stifle cannabis industry employees’ rights across the country as a sop to their union boss political allies.

“State lawmakers have no shortage of factors to wrestle with when deciding whether to greenlight the cannabis industry, but one thing should be non-negotiable: Letting the industry take root shouldn’t mean that workers’ individual rights go up in smoke,” Mix continues.

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