Massachusetts’ Mayflower Medicinals Employees Join Union

Workers at Mayflower Medicinals in Holliston, Massachusetts have voted to join United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1445, the Boston Business Journal reports. The union said employees chose to join to the union due to slow responses to the coronavirus pandemic, lack of consistent treatment from management, and a dearth of adequate healthcare coverage.

The union will next negotiate a contract for the employees.

“More Massachusetts cannabis workers will have an opportunity to ensure the beginnings of this industry, and the working conditions in all these facilities are equitable and standardized,” Local 1445 Secretary Treasurer and Organizing Director, Fabricio DaSilva, in a statement via the Business Journal

In 2019, employees at Sira Naturals became the first cannabis employees in the state to unionize, according to the report. Since then, Local 328 won an election at Curaleaf’s Hanover dispensary, Local 1445 filed petitions with the state to represent workers at Cultivate in Leicester, and on July 1, 60 employees at New England Treatment Access’s Franklin cultivation facility voted to join Local 1445.

Under some cannabis laws, businesses are required to have labor-peace deals which sometimes involves unions, but not always. Stoney Brothers employees in Portland, Oregon last year became the first in the state to unionize, voting unanimously to join UFCW Local 555. The UFCW is also recruiting cannabis employees in Washington state.

In February, budtenders at Clarity Cannabis in British Columbia became the first workers at a private dispensary in Canada to vote to join a union.

Mayflower is owned by iAnthus Capital Holdings.