Unions hope to recruit California cannabis workers, but federal regulations could get in the way

As business owners and municipalities across the State of California are preparing for the legalization of recreational cannabis, unions have been busy recruiting pot workers before big corporations move into marijuana fields and greenhouses. 

Despite their continued efforts, unions might face an uphill battle in unionizing cannabis workers. Many immigrant workers won't be able to unionize as the crop remains federally illegal, and experts disagree whether the legalization of recreational cannabis will actually lead to more workers entering the industry.

Efforts to unionize cannabis workers are not a new phenomenon, but have been revitalized by the upcoming legalization of recreational weed.

The Teamsters have formed a coalition of their Northern and Southern California joint councils to specifically work with businesses in the cannabis industry, whose members have worked on the topic before Prop 64 was passed last year.

The United Farm and Commercial Workers International Union's (UFCW) Cannabis Workers Rising Campaign has lead to them representing thousands of workers in the industry across the U.S since its beginnings in 2010. 

“Tens of thousands of jobs will be created in California as part of this industry, and we want them to be good jobs and Teamster jobs,” Rome Aloise, President of the Teamsters joint council for Northern California said in a newsletter to union members.

California is already home to over 100,000 cannabis workers, who are researching, producing and distributing one of the state's most valuable agricultural commodities.

With an estimated value of about $23 billion, the cannabis industry is expected to grow even further once the state releases its regulations for legal access to recreational weed. Unions are hoping to gain ground before the dust settles.

“We couldn’t wait until everything was set up and moving to start getting involved. We needed to insinuate ourselves on the ground floor," Aloise explained to members.

After California voters decided to move forward with Proposition 64, allowing recreational sales starting Jan. 1, 2018, the state has made moves to regulate the new business. For business owners, many questions remain. 

State, county and city municipal regulations form a complicated and ever-changing patchwork of legal circumstances for growing and selling cannabis in California. “But Teamsters can use our political clout to help them get through that. We’re not always successful, but we try," Kristin Heidelbach, Director of the Cannabis Council for the two joint teamster councils covering California, said in a recent news release. 

In exchange for their advocacy and assistance in navigating the state's complex legal landscape on behalf of cannabis growers and distributors, the Teamsters are pushing to create favorable conditions for cannabis workers to join their union. 

"We ask that the companies develop a labor peace agreement. This means that when they staff up, if the employees choose to be represented by a union, the companies will accept that choice," Heidelbach said in a statement.

Teamsters and other unions already represent a number of cannabis companies and have some signed contracts with workers in California and other states.

The Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA), which will regulate the use, production and distribution of cannabis in California come January 2018, requires all businesses with over 20 employees to enter labor peace agreements. In Los Angeles, the threshold is even lower, at ten employees. 

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One of the companies who has seen the benefits of being represented by a union is THC Designs, a cannabis cultivation company in Los Angeles, which was hit with a police raid in July. 

“We’re not a clothing company, we’re not what you’re thinking of as a typical company for a union. Because we’ve been undercover,” said Ophelia Chong, who oversees the company's community outreach. Having the Teamsters behind them has helped them fight some of the stereotypes against their product and their customers, she said. 

“We have someone on our side, someone with a strong voice, an influential voice, a historical voice,” Chong explained the benefits of working with the union. 

Both Teamsters' Kristin Heidelbach and the director of UFCW's Cannabis Workers Rising campaign, Jeff Ferro, have been chosen to be part of the Department of Consumer Affairs' Cannabis Advisory Committee.

As recreational cannabis use is on its way to state-wide legalization, experts disagree on the effect legalization will have on the volume of cannabis cultivation in the state, and by extension, the size of its workforce.

In a recent study, researchers at the University of California Davis estimated that only 17% of cannabis grown in California remains in the state. Shipping cannabis out of the state will remain illegal under the new law, providing little incentive for export-oriented businesses to enter the legal sector. 

In addition, cannabis workers may be especially hard to unionize. 

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Marc B. Schenker, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Public Health Sciences and Medicine at the UC Davis School of Medicine, has researched health and safety risks for cannabis workers. While facing some of the same health risks as other agricultural workers, the demographic of cannabis workers is much younger and more diverse than that of other crops.

The "trimmigrants" are often young, seasonal workers who come to the U.S. from all over the world, on student or other visas not designed for traditional seasonal work to trim and harvest cannabis plants. Most of these visas don't provide work permits or only allow visa holders to work after receiving permission from the Department of Homeland Security, a federal agency.

Given that cannabis production and sale is still federally illegal, these workers would not be able to receive work permits or visas designed for seasonal agricultural workers, even after the legalization process has advanced in California. With visa regulations keeping them in the shadows, unionization won't be an option until cannabis is federally legalized. 

Also, for individual cannabis entrepreneurs, unionizing might not be the first order of business. “It would be interesting to have a sit-down with everyone, but right now everyone’s going crazy trying to figure out what the state is going to do,” said Julie Montante, owner of PSA Organica, a cannabis dispensary in Palm Springs. 

Still, Schenker was careful not to make any predictions on the future demographic of California's cannabis workforce. “What you see today, is what you see today,” Schenker pointed out, acknowledging the temporary nature of his observations. “The crackdown on immigration has affected agriculture,” Schenker said. "It would surprise me if that didn’t happen in the cannabis industry."

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Until then, Schenker hopes that the state-wide legalization of recreational cannabis and the increased focus on the industry will spark more research and by extension provide safer conditions for workers. Unions could help push the issue forward.

“There has been very little research of the risks on health and safety for workers in the industry,” Schenker said. “Unions can be effective for health and safety, because they bring expertise and they can focus on these issues."

For those within the industry, the coming months will be marked with some uncertainty, as cities begin rolling out local permitting processes and locally specific regulations. 

“Right now, everyone has to wait,” Chong with THC Design described the situation. But, she said "having a union back us up, it gives us a little bit of comfort."