Workers at Manistee, Michigan, cannabis store Authentic 231 unionized with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) with the support of parent company Left Coast Holdings.
Authentic 231 is the first marijuana retailer to unionize in Michigan, according to a UFCW news release.
Left Coast Holdings facilitated the unionization “as well as the development of a labor peace agreement to extend the upcoming bargaining agreement for all locations,” according to the release.
“We see our pro-union stance as a great benefit in a state like Michigan,” Left Coast CEO William McKenzie said in a statement.
Left Coast also operates cannabis cultivation and processing facilities in Michigan and has two other retail locations under development, according to the company’s website.
McKenzie told the Manistee News Advocate that unionization would help the company expand to another Michigan retail location.
“We’re actually working on a retail deal in Taylor, Michigan, downriver from Detroit, and the building that we’re purchasing is actually the building from the letter carriers union,” McKenzie told the newspaper.
“One of the stipulations of them selling us the building was that it would have to be a union shop.”
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The UFCW did not say how many store workers had joined the union.
The major union has been on a cannabis industry organizing spree, recruiting members in California and Illinois.
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