OAKLAND GOES TO POT

In California, a surprising new union movement is growing like a weed,
having taken root in a burgeoning economic sector that has enormous
potential: marijuana.

The Golden State was one of the first to legalize the use of medical
marijuana, and a network of licensed growers, dispensaries and other
related businesses has since flourished. It turns out that pot is a
labor-intensive product, and the producers, distributors and retailers
of weed have become something of a hotbed for local job growth. These
workers, as in any other industry, need a unified voice to achieve a
living wage, decent benefits, training, job security, upward mobility
and other elements of a shared prosperity that create a middle class.
In a word, unions.

In Oakland, the first step toward a unionized workforce for medical
marijuana businesses was taken this May when about a hundred retail
employees voted to join Local 5 of the United Food and Commercial
Workers. With a depressingly high unemployment rate, Oakland officials
cheered this introduction of good paychecks, which will allow families
to spread their increased incomes through the local economy.

Then, in September, Local 70 of the Teamsters Union added to Oakland's
marijuana momentum by signing up about 40 gardeners, trimmers and
other skilled workers employed by a local business that contracts to
grow pot for medical marijuana patients in the area. The Teamsters
negotiated a two-year contract that provides a $7 pay hike, health
coverage, paid vacation and pension - the kind of jobs that can
sustain a community.

Ironically, federal law still outlaws marijuana, but common-sense
state and local laws are showing that, by literally going to pot, such
legalized grassroots enterprises can give people and communities a new
high.