Employees at cannabis multistate operator Curaleaf Holdings’ midtown Phoenix store unanimously ratified their first union contract on May 1, labor officials said.
It’s the conclusion to a fight with management that stretched over four years, involved federal labor regulators, an appeal to federal court and led to the first cannabis workers strike in Arizona.
Workers at the store first voted to unionize in 2022 – the first cannabis workers in the state to set up a union. That set off a pitched battle with Curaleaf management.
Meanwhile, workers at another store in the Phoenix area voted to decertify, or kick out their union, Phoenix-based NPR affiliate KJZZ reported.
The deal is also a milestone for Arizona’s marijuana industry, where union organizing remains limited but has gained visibility in recent years.
“Just keeping employees engaged. It’s tough because it’s like a revolving door working there,” Brandon Richardson, a budtender and union steward for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 99, told KJZZ Phoenix.
Curaleaf declined to comment to KJZZ.
Are Arizona cannabis workers going to join unions?
The three-year collective bargaining agreement covers workers at just the Phoenix Midtown location, which is one of Curafleaf’s 16 Arizona cannabis stores, according to the news release.
The deal was negotiated with UFCW Local 99, which also represents workers at several other cannabis facilities in Arizona and Utah.The agreement includes guaranteed wage increases, a progressive discipline and grievance procedure and language preventing the loss of existing benefits during the life of the contract, union officials said.
A Curaleaf employee involved in the organizing effort told KJZZ that the contract should help reduce turnover at the store, where employee churn had been a challenge during the long bargaining process.
Will this deal help future organizing campaigns?
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Curaleaf is one of the largest cannabis multistate operators in the U.S. with 150 dispensaries and 21 cultivation sites across 18 states.
The company has made concerted efforts to fight unionization, including mounting a challenge in federal court to labor-friendly licensing requirements seen in some states. Oral arguments were heard last month in a lawsuit Curaleaf filed against the New Jersey state Cannabis Regulatory Commission that seeks to undo that state’s perquisite to sign a labor-peace agreement with a union.
Richardson said the Midtown contract could serve as a reference point for future organizing campaigns in the state’s cannabis sector, where labor standards, retention and workplace protections are becoming more prominent business issues.
