More Cannabis Workers Tricked By Alleged Management-Aligned Or Fake Marijuana Unions

“No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream,” Martin Luther King Jr. said in his 1963 'I Have a Dream' speech.

Celebrated as a prominent civil rights leader, MLK was also a passionate supporter of labor unions, calling them America’s first anti-poverty program.

This view is still supported by many politicians and university professors who view labor unions as responsible for a strong middle class.

There’s no doubt that every industry that can be dominated by large corporations should have labor unions to unite workers, giving them the power to fight for the same goal. But, when the industry is young, such as cannabis, unionization efforts are still developing and face many challenges.

On of them is the rise of so-called “fake unions,” writes MJBizDaily’s Chris Roberts whose research revealed, among other issues, that there are two competing labor organizations with signed workers at an Ascend dispensary, which does business under a New York-based multistate operator Ascend Wellness  AAWH.

Not The First Fake Cannabis Unions

Part of the workers at Ascend Montclair in New Jersey are unionized with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), while some budtenders are with an outfit called Cannabis Engineers Extractors and Distributors (CEED) with a local unit number 420. Per MJBiz's report, the UFCW came after workers became suspicious about CEED 420.

Labor organizers and experts believe CEED 420 operates like a “company union,” or a sham labor organization with the goal of hindering legitimate labor unions. Sham unions work to benefit the company, while true labor unions protect workers' rights.

This is not the first time fake unions have appeared in the marijuana industry. They were previously identified in California. According to documents obtained by MjBizDaily, some of these sham unions have shown up in Illinois, Michigan, Arizona and Ohio.

“Fake, management-aligned, labor unions are becoming more and more prevalent throughout the cannabis industry and they serve one purpose – to line the pockets of owners at the expense of the workers,” Ademola Oyefeso, an international VP of the UFCW and director of the legislative and political action department. 

“The fact that companies are taking advantage of this is disheartening, and it must stop,” he told the outlet. “It is time for regulators to step up and protect workers from these shady operators.” 

It appears that Ascend is the only cannabis business in New Jersey organized by CEED 420, which reported no members at all in a federally mandated filing with the U.S. Department of Labor. CEED says it is an affiliate of a bigger organization – the International Union of Journeymen and Allied Trades (IUJAT), which has been characterized as a sham union by several tri-state area labor organizations, including local Teamsters, which was formed 120 years aso in the U.S. and Canada. The Teamsters, which represent blue and white-collar workers in public and private sectors, has made inroads in the cannabis space where it says it has no intention of stopping.

See Also: Lifelong Teamster On How Cannabis Workers Are Rejecting 'Churn-And-Burn-Model' Toward Prosperous Careers

‘Shameful Perversion’

CEED spokesperson, Guy James told the outlet that no state has “disqualified” the union and that it “vehemently rejects that it is a company-sided union. Anyone asserting that there should be only one choice for workers in an entire industry seeks to limit workers from exercising their rights under the law.”

Benzinga reached out to Ascend Wellness for a statement, but the spokesperson said they have no comment on this issue.

CEED is one of at least two management-aligned “unions” that have signed contracts with workers across the U.S. The other is called the Professional Technical Union (ProTech). MjBizDaily says that these operations are not getting enough counteraction from state regulators.

Peter Finn, Teamsters western regional VP called sham unions shameful. “They are a shameful perversion of the only institution in America that exists to protect workers, an institution that so many people have not only fought for but died for throughout our country’s history.

“Any employer using a sham union to avoid real collective bargaining should be ashamed of themselves, and anyone on the payroll of a sham union should go get a real job,” Finn concluded. 

Continue reading on MjBizDaily.

See Also: Unionization Grows: Ayr Wellness Nevada Workers Choose UFCW Representation 

Photo: Benzinga edit with images by Alexandros Michailidisand Oleksandrum by Shutterstock and Pete Linforth from Pixabay