John Schroyer
Workers at a Las Vegas marijuana shop voted to organize with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union on Friday, according to the UFCW Local 711. The news marks the latest cannabis shop to unionize, a trend that’s been ongoing for years nationally.
The Ayr Wellness (CSE: AYR.A) (OTCQX: AYRWF) location in Las Vegas, which does business as The Dispensary, is the second Ayr-owned dispensary where workers voted to join the UFCW, the union said in its release.
“I’m so proud of the work my peers and I put into making our voices heard and helping move the cannabis industry in the right direction. We look forward to negotiating a strong union contract that fairly rewards our labor and respects the contributions we make every day toward making the shop successful,” Ayr employee Alberto Villalobos said in the announcement.
The UFCW and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have been hard at work recruiting as many cannabis industry workers as possible in marijuana markets across the nation, and they have not been shy in playing hardball with larger multistate operators.
At least two strikes have taken place thus far this year – one in Arizona and another in Illinois – and the unions have also filed several unfair labor practice complaints with the federal government during negotiations with various multistate cannabis companies, including Curaleaf, Green Thumb Industries, and Trulieve.
