Federal labor regulators have dismissed a Missouri cannabis operator’s claim that manufacturing employees can’t unionize because they should be classified as agricultural workers.
In a decision that could have wide-ranging implications for cannabis labor organizing nationwide, the National Labor Relations Board on April 23 rejected vertically integrated BeLeaf Medical’s argument that “post-harvest” workers who made pre-rolls at its Sinse facility in St. Louis are exempt from National Labor Relations Act protections, documents show.
BeLeaf had been fighting a unionization drive since 2023, according to the Missouri Independent.
The ruling appears to be the first time the NLRB has weighed in directly on the status of post-harvest cannabis workers, the newspaper reported.
A BeLeaf representative declined to comment to the Independent.
Are cannabis processors agricultural workers?
The boundary between agricultural and nonagricultural cannabis work can determine whether employees have the legal right to unionize and enjoy other workplace protections.
That distinction has long carried weight in labor law: Agricultural workers are excluded from the NLRA.
While many states do not provide separate organizing rights for those workers, some others, including California, extend labor-organizing protections to agricultural employees under state law.
For the marijuana industry, where cultivation, trimming, processing and packaging often occur in the same business, the question of where farm work ends and manufacturing begins has become increasingly important as union activity expands.
The BeLeaf workers at issue were not performing traditional agricultural labor, according to the NLRB, as reported by the Independent.
The employees made pre-rolls, entered product data into computer systems and converted dried marijuana into finished goods.
Their work is “not a mere preparation for market but a process that utilizes industrialized processes to transform the mariju-
ana from its natural state into finished products prepared for sale,” the board ruled.
What’s next for post-cannabis-harvest workers?
NLRB board members agreed with a regional director’s earlier finding that those jobs are generally distinct from farm work and more like processing.
The dispute has delayed the Sinse workers’ union vote.
BeLeaf had challenged 11 of the 16 ballots cast in a February 2024 election, arguing that those workers were ineligible. With the board’s decision, those ballots can now be counted.
But the issue may soon be moot – and even cannabis workers engaged in agricultural work will be able to unionize in Missouri.
That’s thanks to a bill Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe signed into law that gives all cannabis workers the right to organize, the Independent reported. That law goes into effect on Nov. 12.
