The International Brotherhood of Teamsters grew its membership of cannabis workers again, this time in California and Missouri.
Teamsters Local 1932 in San Bernardino, California, added 81 workers at Growpacker, a Desert Hot Springs-based cannabis bottling facility, according to a news release.
Employees at another San Bernardino cannabis company, Captain Jack’s Dispensary, voted in February to join Local 1932.
In 2021, cultivation facility workers at nearby Tikun Olam also voted to join Local 1932.
“This is the fifth group of California cannabis workers who have joined the Teamsters this year, and there are many more on the horizon,” Peter Finn, Teamsters’ Western Region vice president and food processing division director, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, patient-care advocates and supervisors at Valley Park, Missouri-based Bloc Dispensary, a subsidiary of Justice Cannabis Company, voted to join Teamsters Local 618.
It marks the first time the Teamsters have unionized marijuana workers in Missouri, according to a release.
“This is the first of many cultivation, distribution, and retail operations that we’re going to organize throughout Missouri,” Finn said in a statement.
The other big union in the cannabis space, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), started recruiting Missouri marijuana workers in 2022. (Full Story)