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Business Agent for Teamsters Local 777 Chris Smith, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to talk about the unionization of the cannabis industry in the Chicagoland area. He also discussed the differences dispensary workers see after joining a union.
Smith got his start with the labor movement after helping to bring Teamsters Local 777 into their first cannabis dispensary store. He was then added to the negotiation committee for the region's cannabis industry, helping to add four more store fronts to the union. Following this success, he was voted in as the business agent for Local 777 representing the Local’s cannabis industry workers. Local 777 isn’t done organizing the cannabis industry, as there are another 10 dispensaries in negotiations for a first contract.
In Smith’s experience, there are a few main issues facing dispensary workers, and preventing them from maintaining long-term employment. Many of the jobs are paid like those in the fast food industry, which doesn’t allow workers to maintain the job as a viable career path, Smith said. The benefits for the workers are either non-existent or limited, and workplace safety needs to be improved industry wide, he said.
There are major improvements to the workplace following unionization for the cannabis workers, Smith said. Seeing the improvements has created a pro-union wave that is pushing it’s way through Chicagoland's dispensaries. Unfortunately, the management has resorted to hiring anti-union law firms to try to prevent unions from entering their workplace. Due to the education plan enacted by Smith and the organizers with Local 777, the workers know the details of the unionization process and all the facts for every step of the process.
Listen to the entire episode to learn more.
America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.
America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, American Alliance for Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North America, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, Survey and Ballot Systems, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.
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