Employees at a Massachusetts marijuana cultivation and processing facility ratified their initial collective bargaining agreement, 10 months after being the first cannabis workers in the state to vote to unionize.
The three-year labor contract at Sira Naturals in Milford will cover about 120 workers, said Gabriel Camacho, organizing/political director for the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1445.“It was ratified by an overwhelming vote, close to 90%,” after a series of Zoom meetings just before Labor Day weekend, Camacho told Marijuana Business Daily.
He said the agreement includes wage increases of 50 cents to a $1 an hour, annual pay hikes, health-care options, a 401(k) retirement plan and a three-step grievance procedure.
Workers at several other Massachusetts cannabis facilities have voted to join the UFCW in recent months, including:
- Cultivate Holdings, a grow facility in Leicester.
- Mayflower Medicinals, a dispensary in Holliston.
- New England Treatment Access (NETA), a cultivation facility in Franklin.
NETA dispensary employees voted against unionizing, but the union has charged the company with coercive anti-bargaining tactics.
