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An Oregon ballot measure will ask voters this November whether to make it easier for cannabis workers to unionize.
Under Ballot Measure 119, United for Cannabis Workers Act, employers at cannabis retail and processing businesses would be required to sign a “labor peace agreement” with a labor union to receive a license from the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission. In that agreement, employers must agree not to interfere with organizing efforts if their employees choose to unionize.
As of early September, there’s no organized opposition to the measure, although a business lobbying group opposed a similar law that died in the Oregon Legislature last year.
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A file photo of cannabis at a recreational dispensary.
Alan Sylvestre / OPB
Because of vague federal laws, cannabis workers are often denied the right to unionize, said Miles Eshaia, a spokesperson for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555 — Oregon’s largest private sector labor union.
“This should have been something that came out when Oregon passed legalization for recreational use,” Eshaia said.
UFCW 555 has pushed for the measure to become law. Earlier this summer, the union spent over $2 million on a signature collection campaign to qualify for the ballot.
Eshaia said some cannabis employees might work cultivating, harvesting and processing cannabis and be exposed to chemicals without wearing the proper protective equipment. He said some workers also have to deal with hazardous working conditions. But when workers speak up, they’re sometimes met with intimidation or the threat of losing their jobs.
“We want to make sure that workers have a safe working environment,” Eshaia said. “We don’t want them to be exposed to toxic chemicals if they don’t need to be. We want to negotiate their own safety and working conditions because that’s only fair.”
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The most current data shows there are 7,281 workers in the cannabis field, the majority of which work on the retail, transportation and warehousing side of the industry, according to the Oregon Employment Department.
If passed, Measure 119 would likely give most workers in the industry the right to unionize, unless the worker is classified solely as an agricultural worker. That’s because agricultural laborers are not protected or allowed to unionize under the National Labor Relations Act.
Similar laws are already on the books in states like California, New York and New Jersey.
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This isn’t the first time UFCW 555 has tried to pass a similar law to protect cannabis workers. The union also pushed for the policy in the form of House Bill 3183 during the 2023 state legislative session, but that bill died. At the time, some lawmakers were concerned the bill would have been unconstitutional.
Groups like the Oregon Business and Industry (OBI), a lobbying group, opposed the bill because it would have required employers to “surrender rights protected by federal law.”
This time around, OBI has not publicly opposed Measure 119. Erik Lukens, a spokesperson for OBI, told OPB in an email that the group would not speculate on potential litigation. Lukens did say it will talk with its members and consider possible actions when the time is right if the measure passes.
Dan Clay, president of UFCW Local 555, prepares to submit boxes of signatures to state elections officials on July 5, 2024. Measure 119, the United for Cannabis Workers Act, will be on Oregon ballots this November.
Courtesy UFCW Local 555
The Cannabis Industry Alliance of Oregon, an advocacy and lobbying group for cannabis retailers, is neither supporting nor opposing the measure, according to Mike Getlin, the board chair of the organization.
“The owners of these businesses are not antagonistic to labor organizing, it’s not who we are,” Getlin said. “The vast majority of us have worked on that side of the fence as well. We are, as a whole, not career managers. So we understand the critical role that a healthy workforce and strong protections for that workforce plays.”
He said he disagrees with the claim that cannabis processing facilities are unsafe.
“This idea that these are big burly unsafe facilities poorly managed with a bunch of dangerous barrels of chemicals laying around and people walking in and not getting paid. If you’ve ever walked into an OLCC [Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission] license facility, you immediately start to realize how disingenuous that is,” he said.
Getlin added he worries groups might want to tack on more requirements to labor agreements that employers might not be able to have a fair say in.
“Most egregiously in California — where this policy has morphed into something very different from a simple labor peace agreement, which has led to complex, expensive litigation and has led to challenges in enforcement,” he said. “And has led to a host of other negative outcomes for the relationship between ownership and labor in those markets.”
At least one federal lawsuit in California was filed in April of 2024. A cannabis dispensary there is alleging the policy is unconstitutional, violates the company’s right to due process and supersedes federal labor laws.
Eshaia said he does not see Oregon having the same issue.
“We’re trying to fix something here. Every worker deserves the right to have safe working conditions,” he said. “They deserve the right to a union if they choose. Let’s just play catch up to other states because there’s no need not to.”