Union fever is spreading like wildfire among the state’s cannabis workers even though the adult use recreational market has yet to open up.
“From budtenders to cultivators, to trimmers — cannabis workers will be pursuing union representation not only in New Jersey, but around the nation,” said Hugh Giordano, cannabis representative of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 360, which represents a large majority of cultivation and dispensary workers in the state.
The 22 budtenders at the Montclair, Essex County facility ratified their first union contract ever on Feb. 4. The three-year labor agreement provides significant wage increases and benefits for the budtenders. Rob Mejia, Adjunct Professor at Stockton University in the cannabis studies department said, the three-year contract is symbolic.
“This is just another example of cannabis in New Jersey being normalized,” said Mejia. “Cannabis is big business and of course unions would be part of the picture.” Jeff Tabankin, 26, has worked two years in the cannabis industry and the last six months as a budtender at the Ascend Montclair Dispensary, one of the 22 budtenders the new contract covers.