All is not well at South Jersey's only medical marijuana
dispensary, a business outside Atlantic City that has experienced a wave of
setbacks.
The workers who nurture and sell Cherry Berry, Pineapple
Chunk, and other cannabis strains at the Compassionate Care Foundation facility
are preparing for a hearing before the National Labor Relations Board, after a
majority said their attempt to join a union was blocked by their employer.
United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 152 says a
majority of the 11 growers and dispensary employees who work at the facility in
Egg Harbor Township also filed unfair labor practices charges last month with
the NLRB, saying Compassionate Care retaliated by lowering their wages and
altering their hours. They earn between $12 and $25 an hour, said Local 152,
which represents 14,000 South Jersey workers and is based in Mays Landing.
Brian String, president of Local 152, said the dispensary
has used "tricks from the usual antiunion play book" to deny the
workers the right to organize, and reclassified employees as "agricultural
workers" or "supervisors" who are exempt from the National Labor
Relations Act.
A hearing before the board is set for March 16 in
Philadelphia, according to NLRB spokesperson Jessica Kahanek.
Meredith Swartz, an attorney with Ballard Spahr who is
listed as counsel for Compassionate Care, declined comment.
The complaint comes several months after dispensary CEO
and president Bill Thomas abruptly resigned. Before leaving, he publicly spoke
out against the state's marijuana regulations, calling them onerous and saying
they interfered with sound business practices and discouraged patients from
enrolling.
Compassionate Care also had to abandon year-old plans to
manufacture edibles because state regulators would not grant approvals, saying
they are creating new rules to govern the extraction process. Another plan,
which would have doubled the dispensary's growing space, also has been delayed.
New Jersey is one of 23 states that have legalized
medical marijuana despite a longtime federal prohibition against selling or
using the drug for medical or recreational reasons. The NLRB, a federal agency,
has taken jurisdiction over this case and does not see a conflict in doing so,
Kahanek said. She pointed to a 2013 case in which the NLRB agreed to hear a
case in which employees filed a complaint against Maine's largest dispensary.
At that time, the agency's general counsel's office
issued a legal opinion that the board should take up the complaint, calling the
Wellness Connection of Maine "a business enterprise." The opinion,
written Oct. 25, 2013, by Associate General Counsel Barry J. Kearney, said the
U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspects dispensaries, and
also noted that the federal Department of Justice advises federal prosecutors
against enforcing marijuana laws when there is compliance with state
regulations that govern the marijuana industry.
"This federal policy towards state-level marijuana
legalization efforts creates a situation in which the medical marijuana
industry is in existence, integrating into local, state, and national
economies, and employing thousands of people, some of whom are represented by
labor unions or involved in labor organizing efforts despite the industry's
illegality," the opinion said.
The Maine case, which was informally settled last June,
is similar to the New Jersey case. The majority of the 11 Maine employees had
contended that they were denied the right to organize and that they were told
they were agricultural laborers, exempt from NLRB jurisdiction. The 2013 legal
opinion concluded that they were manufacturing workers rather than farm labor
because they were involved in transforming the cannabis plants "from their
raw and natural state." They spent much of their time trimming the dry
cannabis by hand, removing leaves and stems, and then running it through a
"twister" machine to reduce it to buds that have the "most
medicinal value," the opinion said.
The national UFCW reported it represented "thousands
of medical cannabis workers" in the country and even created a division
called the "Medical Cannabis and Hemp Division," according to the
opinion. The Teamsters have also organized marijuana workers.
Mark Belland, a Cherry Hill lawyer who represents Local
152, said Compassionate Care "informally suggested" that it might
question whether the NLRB can hear the case in light of the federal
government's view that marijuana is illegal. Though the agency's general
counsel determined that the NLRB has jurisdiction over such cases, a formal decision
by the agency or a court has never been requested or issued, he said.
"It has the potential to become an issue in this
case," Belland said. "If the employer doesn't come under the NLRB, it
would be allowed freer reign over workplace policy."
The labor complaint said that the employees took a
voluntary "temporary 60-day pay cut" in July, when Compassionate Care
said it was having financial difficulties. The employer said they would be
reinstated to full pay at the end of October. But when their salaries were not
restored and they petitioned to join a union in November, the employer refused
to restore their salaries and hours, and said they "would not receive
promised back pay," the complaint said.
Tom Olah, manager of Compassionate Care, referred all
questions to Frank Dagostino, who was named the CEO in December.
When reached on his cellphone, Dagostino said, "I'm
on vacation," and hung up.
David Knowlton, chairman of the Compassionate Care
Foundation, did not return calls for comment.
Compassionate Care opened inside a former casino
warehouse in October 2013. It has about 900 patients.
Source: Philly.com
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