Oregon Voters Will Decide On Ballot Measure To Help Marijuana Industry Workers Unionize This November

Oregon officials have certified an initiative for the November ballot that would help marijuana industry workers unionize by mandating labor peace agreements in the sector.

About a month after a regional chapter of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) submitted more than 160,000 signatures to qualify the measure—which aims to block union-busting activities by marijuana industry employers—the secretary of state’s office confirmed last week that there were enough valid petitions to secure ballot placement.

This comes after the legislature declined to enact a bill containing similar provisions as part of the 2023 session. UFCW lobbied for that legislation, and it decided to mount a campaign to let voters decide on the issue this year after that effort failed.

“Workers across every industry should have the freedom to unionize if they so choose,” Dan Clay, president of UFCW Local 555, said in a press release. “This ballot measure closes an age-old loophole that deprives that right to thousands of Oregon cannabis workers.

“Shady cannabis tycoons have taken advantage of an outdated law to strip workers’ rights that are guaranteed to nearly every other American,” he said. “By passing Measure 119, voters will enshrine the freedom to unionize in the Oregon Cannabis industry.”

Failure to provide proof of a labor peace agreement would be grounds for a denial or revocation of a marijuana business license under the proposal. The agreement is defined as a contractually enforceable understanding that the employer must “remain neutral with respect to a bona fide labor organization’s representatives communicating with the employees of the applicant or the licensee about the rights afforded to such employees.”

Miles Eshaia, communications coordinator at UFCW Local 555, said the “freedom to form a union is a right that was secured by the generations of workers that built this country.”

“While other American workers have inherited those hard-won liberties, Oregon cannabis workers are being left behind,” Eshaia said. “Oregon voters have the opportunity to deliver on the sacred promise that we should all have equal rights under the law. You have the freedom to form a union; when we pass measure 119, Oregon cannabis workers will too.”

The local union pressed for legislators to enact a bill to codify the labor protections last year. After it was effectively killed by a top House Democrat, it announced that it would be leading a recall effort to oust him.

Oregon Sen. Chris Gorsek (D), who carried that legislation, said he’s “excited to help ensure that the freedom to join a union is enjoyed by as many Oregon workers as possible” at the ballot.

“This measure will bring us in line not only with the other states that have paved the way, but also with Oregon’s own values,” he said.

As labor unions fight for workers’ rights in multiple legalization states—from Rhode Island to Missouri—the national UFCW has also been involved in pushing for federal cannabis reform.

Specifically, UFCW has advocated for the urgent passage of a congressional bill to protect banks that work with state-legal marijuana businesses from being penalized by federal regulators, casting it as a public safety imperative in light of a surge of robberies targeting the cash-intensive industry.

Last year, Ademola Oyefeso, UFCW’s director of legislative and political action, testified at an initial Senate Banking Committee hearing on the cannabis bill.

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Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.