John Pletz
This story was republished with permission from Crain’s Chicago.
The Teamsters reached a tentative agreement with Verano Holdings Corp. that will cover about 80 workers at marijuana shops in in the Chicago area.
It’s the second deal the Teamsters have reached with a large marijuana company in just a few months. The union, best known for organizing the trucking and warehousing industry, is working to become the dominant player in the nascent cannabis industry.
“Our long-term goal is to organize in every aspect of the cannabis supply chain — growth, distribution and retail — so we’re targeting both MSOs and smaller operators,” the union said in a statement. “Having union density throughout every sector of the industry is the only way we’re going to make middle-class careers possible.”
The union says it represents about 1,000 workers nationwide in the cannabis industry.
As home to the headquarters of four of the biggest marijuana companies, Chicago is fertile ground. The Teamsters reached a deal with PharmaCann in May. The union is in the process of negotiating contracts for workers at stores owned by Cresco Labs and Green Thumb Industries.
The Teamsters also negotiated a contract with New York-based Ascend Wellness, covering workers at two stores in Chicago that the company acquired from MOCA-Modern Cannabis.
Workers at the two Verano stores will get raises between 17% and 20%, the Teamsters say, although the exact amount will depend on their roles and locations. Workers must vote to approve the deal.
The PharmaCann deal will provide roughly 20% raises over three years to about 100 workers at five stores. There has been a surge in union organizing in industries or companies that previously haven’t had much interaction with organized labor, such as Starbucks and Amazon. But it’s been harder to actually get to the contract stage. The Teamsters have negotiated contracts in cannabis relatively quickly.
