It’s believed to be the first bargaining unit of its kind: 40 employees of the Broadview Canna Clinic, part of a nationwide chain of pot dispensaries, have voted to join Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector union. The unit, announced Thursday, May 18, will include reception, production and packaging and retail staff, as well as supervisors, according to a Unifor press release.
Managers of the Canna Clinic, which operates seven dispensaries in Toronto and six in BC, appealed to the Labour Relations Board earlier in the month to delay a vote on the union, claiming that official notice of the balloting was “procedurally unfair.” The appeal was denied.
The main concerns, say union representatives, are safety and staff training. Over the past year, a string of robberies have hit Toronto dispensaries, which have little recourse to police protection since they are technically operating illegally. In March, the Canna Clinic on Broadview was robbed at gunpoint. Police say a shot was fired inside the store.
“It’s a cash-only industry and workplace. That creates concerns,” says Katha Fortier, assistant to Unifor national president Jerry Dias. “Employees want to make sure they’re properly trained to deal with anything that could come up.”
Many bud-tender positions in Toronto pay little more than minimum wage. What’s more, workers are exposed to possible criminal charges: more than 100 front-line storefront workers were arrested during last year’s Project Claudia raids. According to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, charges against nearly all these bud-tenders were withdrawn in March.
Employees of the Broadview Canna Clinic did not respond to NOW’s request for comment, and repeated attempts to reach Canna Clinic owners were unsuccessful.
While Canna Clinic is believed to be the first dispensary in Canada to unionize, it builds on a growing movement in Canada and the United States. Cannabis workers in the quickly evolving industry in northern California began organizing as far back as 2010, some under local Teamsters unions and others under larger unions like the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).
In Canada, unionization has been slow to catch on. In 2015, workers at MedReleaf, a licensed medpot producer based in Markham, failed in their first bid to form a union with UFCW Canada. MedReleaf staff have since alleged that management engaged in “very serious misconduct” in order to scuttle the organizing attempt. Shortly after the failed unionization bid, 11 employees – including organizers of the unionization effort – were fired, according to UFCW Canada.
In MedReleaf’s case, both federal and provincial labour boards have ruled that cannabis employees are agricultural workers, whose right to unionize in Ontario was revoked by the Harris government in 1995. UFCW has taken its fight with MedReleaf to the Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs Appeals tribunal.
The case illustrates the complicated nature of labour rights in the cannabis industry, where legal ambiguity adds another layer of difficulty to organizing efforts. Many of the jobs are highly precarious, and given the rolling raids, workers are reluctant to draw attention to themselves.
In the weeks since the vote at Canna Clinic was announced, labour lawyers have chimed in. Speaking with legal trade magazine The Lawyer’s Daily, David Doorey, a professor of work law at York University, points out that “the Canna Clinic employment contract appears to conflict with some well-known common-law contract principles,” – namely, “that an employer will not order an employee to perform illegal acts.”
Dias argues that shouldn’t matter.
“Every worker has a right to unionize, no matter the status of an industry,” he says. Union leaders say they approach cannabis employees the same way they would workers in any other industry.
Adds Fortier, “The Ontario Labour Relations Board has certified that this is an employer, and we have a legal right to represent them.”
As the industry scales up to meet increased demand after legalization, more legal weed workers are likely to unionize as career opportunities open up.
While the employees of the Broadview Canna Clinic are the first, union organizers hope they will set an example for other workers in the cannabis industry.
“It’s not unusual that when one group goes, others follow,” says Fortier.
“Once other groups start, many workers get the courage to do the same.”
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