SAN JOSE UNION BEGINS ORGANIZING POT WORKERS

A major California labor union is organizing medical cannabis workers
in Oakland, a move that analysts say will help efforts to legalize
marijuana and open the door for the union to organize thousands more
workers if state voters pass a measure in November to allow
recreational marijuana use by adults.

The 26,000-member United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5 in San
Jose is believed to be the first union in the country to organize
workers in a marijuana-related business. It is considering new job
classifications including "bud tender" - a sommelier of sorts who
helps medical marijuana users choose the right strain for their ailment.

"Union bud tender," said Carl Anderson, executive director of AMCD,
an Oakland nonprofit medical cannabis dispensary that is going
through the city's permitting process. The dispensary has 15 freshly
minted union employees as it readies for an expected opening in
December. "With full union health benefits and a pension," Anderson said.

With roughly 100 cannabis industry workers in Oakland now in the
process of unionizing, the move is mutually beneficial for labor and
marijuana advocates.

The union, whose membership is dominated by commercial grocery store
workers, retail clerks and some agricultural workers, gets to
establish a toehold in a growing new pool of cannabis workers.

While its membership has been stable compared with those representing
other sectors of the economy, the local's rolls fell 5 percent last
year as a result of layoffs and reduced hours.

Many New Jobs Foreseen

If California voters in November approve the Control and Tax Cannabis
initiative, which would legalize marijuana possession and use of
small amounts of marijuana for those over 21 and tax it, there could
be thousands of new workers ripe for unionizing, said Dan Rush, a
Local 5 organizer.

In addition to the retail clerks at the dispensaries, union
organizers anticipate thousands of new cannabis-processing jobs,
agricultural work for growers and security positions at dispensaries.

"These will be good union jobs with middle-class incomes," said Ron
Lind, the president of Local 5 and a vice president of the 1.3
million-member international union.

The union has not officially endorsed November's legalization
measure. Those recommendations could come in July. But Lind said the
union's national leadership is "supportive" of the local's new
outreach and it reflects the interests of members.

Removing a Stigma

Getting unions involved may help destigmatize the legalization issue
for union members who don't already support it.

A Public Policy Institute of California survey released last week
found that 49 percent of likely voters said they think marijuana
should be legalized, while 48 percent felt it shouldn't. The poll
didn't ask voters whether they thought pot should be regulated and
taxed. Other polls show double-digit support for the legalization
initiative in November.

Easing Opposition

Seeing a union step into the discussion could melt some opposition.

"It does help further legitimize the notion of legalizing and taxing
cannabis," said Ken Jacobs, chair of the UC Berkeley Labor Center,
which conducts research and education on labor issues.

"Local 5 is a very large and highly respected union. This reflects a
change about attitudes about cannabis in this state - and the
recognition of the economic realities that California is facing," Jacobs said.

While some industries may bristle at unionization, cannabis advocates
embraced it.

"This is a major step - some are saying it's a game-changer," said
Jeff Jones, a pioneer in the medical cannabis movement who is
executive director for the Patient ID Center in Oakland, which
provides support to medical cannabis users. Fifteen workers there are
now unionized.

"This is helping to take a movement that had been operating
underground and bringing it into the light," said Jones, who is also
one of the lead proponents of the November legalization measure.