{"id":86555,"date":"2026-08-04T10:20:58","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T18:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2026\/08\/04\/marijuana-business-sues-new-jersey-officials-in-federal-court-over-labor-union-requirements\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T19:47:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T03:47:15","slug":"marijuana-business-sues-new-jersey-officials-in-federal-court-over-labor-union-requirements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2026\/08\/04\/marijuana-business-sues-new-jersey-officials-in-federal-court-over-labor-union-requirements\/","title":{"rendered":"Marijuana Business Sues New Jersey Officials In Federal Court Over Labor Union Requirements"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cVerano did not want any of these terms. Had it been free to do so, it would not have accepted any of them. In fact, it would have signed no [labor peace agreement] at all.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By Sophie Nieto-Mu\u00f1oz, New Jersey Monitor<\/strong><\/p>\n

New Jersey\u2019s mandate that cannabis companies must sign agreements with labor unions is facing another legal challenge from one of the industry\u2019s largest operators.<\/p>\n

Verano, which runs four ZenLeaf dispensaries in New Jersey, is suing the state\u2019s Cannabis Regulatory Commission, arguing the state can\u2019t force it to sign what\u2019s called a labor peace agreement with a union. Verano\u2019s labor peace agreements require it to remain neutral when it comes to union organizing and bar Verano from making negative statements about the union, among other things.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s cannabis regulation law requires cannabis companies to maintain these agreements to obtain and keep a license to sell cannabis.\u00a0Verano\u2019s lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in New Jersey, alleges this violates the National Labor Relations Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cVerano did not want any of these terms,\u201d the complaint states. \u201cHad it been free to do so, it would not have accepted any of them. In fact, it would have signed no [labor peace agreement] at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verano notes in the complaint that the commission has a history of enforcing the agreement condition and will dole out civil penalties when companies don\u2019t comply. The commission fined Curaleaf, a major competitor of Verano, $610,000 in 2025 for failing to maintain its labor peace agreement.<\/p>\n

Verano said if it loses its license, it will be forced out of business, forced to fire its workers, and \u201csacrifice its accumulated goodwill in the local market.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company holds licenses for dispensaries in Elizabeth, Lawrence Township, Neptune Township and Mount Holly, plus a cultivation and processing facility in Branchburg, with a total staff of about 300. The Neptune license was up for renewal August 1, with Mount Holly\u2019s renewal coming up in November.<\/p>\n

Verano\u2019s labor peace agreement is with Local 360 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.<\/p>\n

Verano is asking a judge to declare that the labor peace mandate can\u2019t be used as grounds to deny, suspend, revoke or refuse renewal of its licenses, and that its agreements with Local 360 are voidable, which would allow the company to walk away from the union relationship.<\/p>\n

Spokespeople for the union, which is named as a defendant in Verano\u2019s lawsuit, and for the Cannabis Regulatory Commission did not respond to requests for comment. The commission is scheduled to meet for a public meeting on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Verano\u2019s lawsuit<\/a> relies heavily on a recent decision in Curaleaf\u2019s legal challenge to labor peace agreements. In that case, a federal judge in May denied the Cannabis Regulatory Commission\u2019s move to dismiss Curaleaf\u2019s lawsuit and said labor peace agreements are preempted by federal law.<\/p>\n

Verano argued its agreements with the union should now be considered void, claiming that both sides signed them under the belief that it was required under law, that Verano only signed under \u201cillegitimate coercion,\u201d and that the agreement\u2019s entire purpose\u2014regulatory compliance\u2014no longer exists because of the ruling in the Curaleaf case.<\/p>\n

New Jersey started requiring these agreements in 2018, when the state Department of Health began scoring cannabis license applications and awarded 30 points to companies that signed one, which effectively made the agreement a necessity. It was later written into the state\u2019s cannabis law, which led to recreational dispensaries\u00a0opening their doors in April 2022.<\/p>\n

This story was first published by New Jersey Monitor.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The post Marijuana Business Sues New Jersey Officials In Federal Court Over Labor Union Requirements<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Marijuana Business Sues New Jersey Officials In Federal Court Over Labor Union Requirements<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cVerano did not want any of these terms. Had it been free to do so, it would not have accepted any of them. In fact, it would have signed no [labor peace agreement] at all.\u201d By Sophie Nieto-Mu\u00f1oz, New Jersey Monitor New Jersey\u2019s mandate that cannabis companies must sign agreementsContinue 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\/86555"}],"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=86555"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86556,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86555\/revisions\/86556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}