JEFFERSON CITY — Workers at a St. Louis medical marijuana dispensary are seeking to unionize in what a union official says could be the first representation election involving workers in Missouri’s legal cannabis industry.
Bernadette Faure, a product specialist at Swade Cannabis in the Grove, said following an organizing campaign, workers on Thursday submitted a petition for a union election to company management and the National Labor Relations Board.
An election administered by the NLRB is typically held within 45 days, said Collin Reischman, spokesman for Local 655 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, which is seeking to represent the workers in bargaining negotiations.
Faure said six product specialists are part of the proposed bargaining unit.
She said the employees had not received a response from management as of Thursday afternoon. Swade is a brand of Earth City-based Beleaf Co.
The company did not immediately respond to an email on Thursday. A spokesperson for the NLRB also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We really present this as an opportunity to the company to retain us long term,” Faure said. “We love our jobs and we want to secure them into the future, but we want it to be through a contracted deal that we have in writing and that can’t be changed without our authorization.” [Read More @ The St Louis-Post Dispatch]
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