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A federal judge has struck down a voter-approved Oregon law that required licensed marijuana businesses enter into labor peace agreements<\/a> with workers and mandated that employers remain neutral in discussions around unionization.<\/p>\n About three months after two marijuana businesses\u2014Bubble\u2019s Hash and Ascend Dispensary\u2014filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon challenging the implementation of Measure 119, Judge Michael Simon on Tuesday ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, agreeing that the law unconstitutionally restricts free speech and violates the federal National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).<\/p>\n Under the now defunct law, a marijuana businesses that was unable to provide proof of a labor peace agreement could have been subject a denial or revocation of their license.<\/p>\n The lawsuit named Gov. Tina Kotek (D), Attorney General Dan Rayfield (D) and Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission\u2019s (OLCC) Dennis Doherty and Craig Prins as defendants.<\/p>\n In the order on Tuesday, the judge walked through various components of the legal arguments from both sides and ultimately agreed that the Oregon law is preempted by the NLRA, which is meant to provide protections for workers who want to unionize\u2014but specifically preserves the right for \u201cuninhibited, robust, and wide-open debate in labor disputes.\u201d<\/p>\n By mandating neutrality from employers in labor discussions, that constitutes a violation of the NLRA, the judge ruled.<\/p>\n \u201cMeasure 119 does not distinguish between permissible employer speech and threatening or coercive speech,\u201d Simon said. \u201cMeasure 119 is not limited to restricting only threatening, coercive, false, or misleading speech, but instead prohibits all speech by employers that is not \u2018neutral\u2019 toward unionization.\u201d<\/p>\n On the question of whether the law violates First Amendment protections under the U.S. Constitution, the cannabis companies argued that \u201cMeasure 119 is a content-based restriction on speech that is subject to strict scrutiny, and that Defendants fail to provide a compelling government interest requiring this restriction.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDefendants respond that Measure 119 is a permissible regulation of commercial speech,\u201d the order says. \u201cPlaintiffs reply that Measure 119 does not regulate commercial speech.\u201d The judge agreed with the plaintiffs.<\/p>\n Therefore, \u201cthe Court grants the requested declaratory and permanent injunctive relief, after concluding that Measure 119 is preempted by the NLRA in violation of the Supremacy Clause and violates Plaintiffs\u2019 First Amendment rights, and that all requirements for permanent injunctive relief have been satisfied.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 Measure 119 passed with about 57 percent of the vote<\/a> last November. A regional chapter of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)\u2014UFCW Local 555\u2014had submitted more than 160,000 signatures to qualify the measure for ballot placement last year.<\/p>\n During the Oregon legislature\u2019s 2023 session, lawmakers declined to enact a bill containing similar provisions. UFCW lobbied for that legislation, and it decided to mount a campaign to let voters decide on the issue this year after that effort failed.<\/p>\n UFCW pressed legislators to enact a bill to codify the labor protections in 2023. And after it was effectively killed by a top House Democrat, it announced that\u00a0it would be leading a recall effort to oust him<\/a>.<\/p>\n Read the federal court\u2019s order and judgement<\/a> in the Oregon Measure 119 lawsuit below:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n New York Officials Take Steps To Expand Marijuana Farmers Market Program<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo elements courtesy of rawpixel<\/a> and Philip Steffan<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Federal Judge Blocks Voter-Approved Oregon Law Requiring Marijuana Businesses To Have Labor Peace Agreements With Workers<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A federal judge has struck down a voter-approved Oregon law that required licensed marijuana businesses enter into labor peace agreements with workers and mandated that employers remain neutral in discussions around unionization. About three months after two marijuana businesses\u2014Bubble\u2019s Hash and Ascend Dispensary\u2014filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District CourtContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":81293,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81292"}],"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\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81292"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81294,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81292\/revisions\/81294"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Federal Judge Blocks Voter-Approved Oregon Law Requiring Marijuana Businesses To Have Labor Peace Agreements With Workers<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"