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Having a Heart

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[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]W[/dropcap]ashington welcomed its first unionized cannabis retailer in late August. Have a Heart, a premier cannabis retailer located in Seattle, joined the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) 21. The contract will cover 134 employees at five separate locations and includes competitive wages, healthcare benefits, maternal and paternal paid time off, retirement benefits and more. This is one of the first examples of unionization for the cannabis industry in Washington.

Tom Geiger, communications director at UFCW 21, told CULTURE about the contract, and what makes it unique. “Cannabis is an emerging industry in Washington State. It hasn’t settled, and there’s a lot going on. Within that context, there was a lot of interest both from the union, and the employer, to make this thing take off.” Geiger explained. “The contract happened quickly, because the employer was not overtly, or strenuously anti-union. There were no threats of firing, or intimidating employees who wanted to create a union. In fact, they were eager to create a union.”

Perhaps it was this collaborative spirit that created a contract that went above and beyond the norm when it came to including employees. “We’re excited about all of the benefits that open up to employees. And the expansion of unions when the owners open other stores. The Collective Bargaining Agreement, in essence, states that as the owners open new stores in Washington, and elsewhere those workers will have union contracts as well, with their local UFCW by jurisdiction,” Geiger stated.

The fact that Have a Heart wants to include future locations in unions is promising. The business started with its five Washington state locations in Bothell, Belltown, Greenlake, Ocean Shores and Sea-Tac Airport area. The retailer has now expanded well beyond Washington with a total of 15 retail locations in Hawaii, Oregon, California and Iowa in addition to the original locations in Washington.

Have a Heart recently closed the largest private financing for a U.S. retail cannabis company. The retailer received $25 million in a Series A round of funding led by private investors in the cannabis industry. Currently, Have a Heart has 18 applications pending for new stores, five of which are in new states, as well as 20 potential stores with possible partners in four additional states.

“It also allows our people to focus on work. Not have to worry about getting a second job, how are they going to make rent if they get sick or hurt, or any of the stupid crap that we have to deal with in life.”

 

A company this prosperous and well-funded seems like the perfect candidate to set the precedent for a unionized staff.  Have a Heart CEO Ryan Kunkel told CULTURE why he felt joining the UFCW was the right choice for his business.

“We’re trying to lay the foundation of what will be our pay and benefits package, and we kept circling around healthcare. And I don’t just mean a one-off, crappy healthcare option that most places offer. I mean a real, sustainable healthcare option. No matter how we broke it down, we could not make it affordable,” Kunkel told CULTURE. “As an employer, I cannot declare my shop a union shop. But what I can do is invite the union in to meet my staff, and if they choose to organize, they will have access to these things. And so they did, and we did. And as a result, we can now offer healthcare, benefits, all the things we wanted to, to build the foundation before we go into these other states. So we’ll have a rock solid platform that allows us to not just have a happy staff, but to attract great applicants.”

Getting to the heart of the matter, Kunkel explained how he foresaw unionization helping his staff, and ultimately his shop’s productivity. “It also allows our people to focus on work. Not have to worry about getting a second job, how are they going to make rent if they get sick or hurt, or any of the stupid crap that we have to deal with in life,” Kunkel said. “So it’s not a huge step but it’s an important step.”

What makes Kunkel so open to his staff joining the UFCW 21, when his peers aren’t open to unions, and are, as he explains it, “not happy about this?”

“I grew up in a union house, I had union parents, I used to be in different unions throughout my life. It was never a toxic thing, it was always a great thing,” Kunkel said. “And if used for the right reasons, it will be a great thing.”

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