Well, if the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) can't unionize Wal-Mart and Whole Foods, they might as well settle on unionizing pot growers.
At a ceremony hosted by Oakland City Council's Rebecca Kaplan, 100 employees at medical marijuana dispensary and education hub Oaksterdam University turned in their membership cards to join the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 5.
It may well be the first union pot shop in the country, if not the world.
But, alas, there seems to be more than just high times at the bargaining table afoot:
Workers at three medical marijuana businesses in Oakland will announce Friday that they have unionized, another step in a concerted campaign aimed at bringing legitimacy to a once-hidden sector of the state's economy and boosting the marijuana-legalization initiative.
Perhaps the UFCW bosses will start claiming taking their dues payments in seeds.
Now, wouldn't that be something?
UPDATE: Oh! Wait! There's more:
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.
Yet, Big Government's Bret Jacobson has a slightly different take on the unionized pot heads:
Well, maybe now we know why: they have been laying the groundwork to organize the entire food chain, as it were, since they have organized a pot shop in Oakland. Now you can Super Size it and smoke a spliff without ever crossing a picket line.
Indeed, unionized pot heads swinging through the unionized drive-thru: There is something to be said for unions creating their own supply and demand.
And, we thought unions had reached their low point when the SEIU unionized strippers exotic dancers some years back!
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“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776
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