{"id":73827,"date":"2024-04-07T07:15:08","date_gmt":"2024-04-07T15:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/04\/07\/missouri-marijuana-worker-union-dispute-could-have-major-implications-for-national-labor-law\/"},"modified":"2024-04-07T12:45:26","modified_gmt":"2024-04-07T20:45:26","slug":"missouri-marijuana-worker-union-dispute-could-have-major-implications-for-national-labor-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/04\/07\/missouri-marijuana-worker-union-dispute-could-have-major-implications-for-national-labor-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Missouri Marijuana Worker Union Dispute Could Have Major Implications For National Labor Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe legal cannabis cultivation industry is relatively new in the United States, and it is different from all previously analyzed agricultural industries.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent<\/strong><\/p>\n

A push by workers in a St. Louis marijuana facility to form a union could have national ramifications on labor law, with the company hoping to block their effort by asking the federal government to intervene.<\/p>\n

At issue is a group of \u201cpost-harvest workers\u201d at BeLeaf Medical\u2019s Sinse cultivation facility in St. Louis. They have been trying to form a union since September<\/a> but have thus far been blocked by their employer\u2019s continuous legal challenges.<\/p>\n

The company argues the employees at its Sinse facility don\u2019t have the right to unionize because they\u2019re considered agricultural workers.<\/p>\n

Agricultural workers aren\u2019t protected under the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, which ensures employees have the right to unionize without fear of retaliation.<\/p>\n

Twice so far this year, National Labor Relations Board Regional Director Andrea Wilkes\u2014who oversees a swath of six states in the Midwest\u2014has ruled against BeLeaf\u2019s argument<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last week, BeLeaf filed a request<\/a> for the national five-member board appointed by the president to review Wilkes\u2019s decisions.<\/p>\n

Legal experts, union officials and industry insiders interviewed by The Independent agree that whichever way the NLRB ultimately rules would have sweeping ramifications for the burgeoning industry across the nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know for a fact that people in these facilities are told \u2018You\u2019re ag workers. You don\u2019t have any rights,\u2019 no matter what position they are,\u201d said Sean Shannon, lead organizer with United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 655. \u201cPeople won\u2019t have to be in this gray area of doubt anymore about whether or not they can organize.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilkes\u2019s decision followed a similar ruling<\/a> in September by another regional NLRB director in a case regarding some New Jersey post-harvest workers.<\/p>\n

However, this would be the first time that the national board weighs in on the issue, setting a national legal precedent.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s what BeLeaf is hoping for, the company said in its request to the NLRB.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe legal cannabis cultivation industry is relatively new in the United States, and it is different from all previously analyzed agricultural industries,\u201d the company argues.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccordingly, there is no officially reported board precedent and no reported judicial decisions to help establish where the line between agricultural and non-agricultural activities may be drawn in a particular situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

BeLeaf did not return The Independent\u2019s repeated requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Shannon said BeLeaf employees were not surprised to see the company\u2019s appeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were expecting it,\u201d he said. \u201cThe company made it very clear that they were going to fight us with every avenue they could. And they\u2019re doing just that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018An industrialized process\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The company\u2019s appeal comes after Wilkes ordered a unionization election be held<\/a> on February 6, where 16 employees at BeLeaf\u2019s cultivation facility on Cherokee Street in St. Louis cast votes.<\/p>\n

Employees are hoping to learn the results of the contested election<\/a> any day now.<\/p>\n

Wilkes found that none of these post-harvest employees are \u201cengaged in primary agricultural activities.\u201d They work separately from the cultivation and harvest departments, she wrote, and don\u2019t overlap in duties.<\/p>\n

However, BeLeaf says the employees work with their hands and they are still working with \u201craw flower.\u201d<\/p>\n

BeLeaf operates three cannabis cultivation facilities and five Swade dispensaries, according to case documents. The Cherokee Street location is the largest of their cultivation facilities in Missouri, where 29 cultivation employees care for the plants and five people harvest the marijuana plants and hang them to dry.<\/p>\n

In a completely separate department, Wilkes said there are 13 post-harvest employees who take down the dried plants and begin the de-stemming process. Some weigh the product and input that information into state\u2019s tracking system Metrc.<\/p>\n

After de-stemming and separating, the marijuana is packaged or processed into pre-rolled joints. The facility produces anywhere from 900 to 1,200 pre-rolls a day.<\/p>\n

She compared the Sinse post-harvest employees\u2019 work to that of employees in a tobacco processing plant.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemoving the veins from tobacco leaves and fermenting the leaves has been held to be outside the definition of agriculture,\u201d under federal labor law, she wrote.<\/p>\n

To determine whether or not an employee is performing agricultural work, Wilkes wrote the federal courts looked at whether the product has undergone a change from its \u2018raw and natural state,\u2019 and is more like manufacturing than to agriculture.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn sum, the employer\u2019s post-harvest production process is not a mere preparation for market but a process that utilizes industrialized processes to transform the marijuana from its natural state into finished products prepared for sale,\u201d Wilkes wrote. \u201cI therefore find that the post-harvest employees are statutory employees under the Act and are not exempted as agricultural laborers.\u201d<\/p>\n

BeLeaf\u2019s challenge<\/strong><\/p>\n

BeLeaf argues that the regional director\u2019s comparison to the tobacco industry is \u201cmisplaced.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe regional director\u2019s analysis is flawed,\u201d the company\u2019s appeal states. \u201cThe post-harvest de-stemming and other processes bear no resemblance to de-stemming tobacco leaves.\u201d<\/p>\n

BeLeaf argues that tobacco leaves are first dried and then fermented over a period of four to eight months. However, BeLeaf workers de-stem, buck, and trim the cannabis plant, and then the buds are \u201ccured to preserve the product in its raw state by preventing the terpenes and terpenoids from breaking down.\u201d<\/p>\n

The regional director found the task of creating pre-rolls is a mechanized process that adds value and could be an independent business.<\/p>\n

But the company argues the marijuana in pre-rolls is still in a raw state.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe raw cannabis plant remains in the same, natural state throughout the entire post-harvest process,\u201d it states. \u201cAccordingly, the post-harvest employees are agricultural workers exempt from coverage of the Act and must be excluded from the proposed bargaining unit.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the New Jersey NLRB case, a company called Columbia Care New Jersey made this exact same argument.<\/p>\n

NLRB Regional Director Kimberly Andrews dismissed it, concluding: \u201cThe transformation of the harvested cannabis plants to the ultimate packaged products ready for market in this case is far more substantial than processes that the courts have found not to be secondary agriculture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeff Toppel, a labor law attorney with the Bianchi Brandt firm in Arizona, said the regional directors\u2019 decisions give a strong indication on how the national board will rule.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a significant decision,\u201d Toppel said, \u201cand could have a wide-ranging impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was first published by Missouri Independent.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

DOJ Says State Marijuana Legalization Boosts Tourism In Court Filing Seeking Dismissal Of Industry Lawsuit<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

The post Missouri Marijuana Worker Union Dispute Could Have Major Implications For National Labor Law<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\u201cThe legal cannabis cultivation industry is relatively new in the United States, and it is different from all previously analyzed agricultural industries.\u201d By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent A push by workers in a St. Louis marijuana facility to form a union could have national ramifications on labor law, with theContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1335],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73827"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73827"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73828,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73827\/revisions\/73828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}