Global Ganja Report

United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 770 has decided to take Los Angeles area cannabis dispensary workers under its wing. The union announced March 22 that "health care and grocery workers will welcome the medical cannabis workers and their successful organizing campaign into their union." Said Local 770 president Rick Icaza: "This is the next step in professionalizing and stabilizing this new sector of the health care industry. Unionization and collective bargaining bring better training, less turnover, and more stability to the health care industry. This is a positive step towards successfully integrating compassionate care into our system of health care." (LA Weekly, March 21)

The UFCW has also unionized cannabis workers in Oakland and in Fort Collins, CO. It has supported mobilizations against the federal crackdown on California's cannabis industry, and thrown its support behind a proposed ballot initiative that would establish statewide norms for regulating and taxing the industry. The Bay Area's UFCW Local 5 has launched a Cannabis Division.

Graphic by Americans for Safe Access