Fired For Cannabis Unionization? Missouri Pot Shop Slammed With $145K Settlement

Cannabis unionization is gaining momentum nationwide. The trend goes hand in hand with the maturing of the industry where large corporations seem to be taking over. While big players are often criticized for their unfair treatment of employees, small businesses can also veer off track.

One such business is Point Management, a company behind Missouri marijuana shop Shangri-La that recently reached a settlement agreement of $145,000 with a labor union to resolve 15 charges of unfair labor practices. Shangri-La has been scrutinized for unjustly terminating 10 employees, who were allegedly fired in response to their efforts to form a union earlier this year.

The National Labor Relations Board approved the deal between Point Management and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 655 under which five employees who were terminated would be rehired.

See also: Unionization Efforts In Cannabis Continue: Workers At New Jersey Cultivation Site Join UFCW Local 152

According to the NLRB, dozens of unfair labor practice allegations at Shangri-La South in Columbia, Missouri were set to go to trial at the end of October.

“Shangri-La agreed to offer reinstatement to five employees and to pay more than $145,000 which includes backpay, front pay, interest, and compensation for direct or foreseeable pecuniary harm to a total of 10 employees who were terminated following a March 2023 union organizing drive,” the NLRB said in a press release on Monday.

NLRB Region 14 Regional Director Andrea J. Wilkes, said “individually and collectively, this settlement vindicates employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act.”

Among other remedies obtained in the settlement, Shangri-La agreed to:

• Recognize and bargain with UFCW Local 655;
• Pay backpay to 10 terminated employees;
• Pay front pay to five terminated employees instead of reinstatement;
• Pay damages to a terminated employee for the interest on a high-interest loan that an employee was forced to take out because of their termination;
• Rescind its ban on terminated employees from public areas of Shangri-La;
• Rescind certain provisions of its handbook and non-disclosure agreement;
• Read a remedial notice to employees at meetings covering each shift;
• Email the remedial notice to employees to its current employees;
• Place the notice to employees on WhatsApp, the messaging platform utilized by Shangri-La to communicate with its employees; and
• Attend a training conducted by the NLRB for its managers and supervisors about employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act.

Fake Cannabis Unions

Meanwhile, MJBizDaily’s Chris Roberts recently wrote about the many challenges facing the fledgling cannabis industry, including "fake unions."

According to Roberts’ research, 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.

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 to hinder legitimate labor unions.

•  47.10% with $GTBIF
•  40.23% with $TCNNF
•  21.50% with $VFF

Photo: Courtesy of succo, mrkukuruznik5 by Pixabay