American Cannabis Workers Unite

In 2015, job security is everything. After a not-so-amicable
split with highly successful dispensary, The Berkeley Patients Group, Debby
Goldsberry wanted something stable. Even as the co-founder of a major medical cannabis
dispensary, Goldsberry was technically a contract worker and therefore she was
terminated at-will. Nowadays, Goldsberry is back in a dispensary as a member of
the United Food and Commercial Workers. Over 3,000 other budtenders, trimmers, and
cultivators have joined the UFCW.

Debby Goldsberry via Facebook

In 2009, Goldsberry was making over $260,000 a year and life
was good. She came into disagreement about the future of BPG in 2010, when Prop
19 was in full gear. She was terminated without severance pay. Goldsberry found
a UFCW member who set her up with an employment attorney who sued BPG for
wrongful termination. It was settled out of court. Goldsberry now works at
Magnolia Wellness, UFCW’s Local 5 “flagship” dispensary. “I never worked
in a place with organized labor.” Goldsberry told
San Francisco Weekly.  “I found out the hard way: had I been a
contract employee, none of this would have ever happened.” Out of 1.2
million UFCW members in America, 3,000 are working within the cannabis
industry.

Steve DeAngelo of Harborside Health in Oakland sees it
differently. Harborside’s workforce voted against unionization after a union
presentation that DeAngelo initially welcomed. “I support the right of
workers to organize, but I don’t like the kind of backroom sweetheart deals
I’ve seen cooked up between some of the unions and the employers in the
cannabis industry.”

The cannabis industry may not yet exactly have “rampant
abuse” of workers as seen in agricultural and industrial settings. Budtenders
in California make $15-18 an hour—more than they’d make in general retail. Last
year, Bhang Chocolates of
Oakland became the latest large company to go UFCW.

The expanding cannabis industry is enabling more real-world
choices. If you are looking to find some job security in a world neck deep in
contract jobs, try joining a union.