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Employees voted 23 to 6 in favor of unionizing, with 75 percent of eligible employees participating.
CBD Kratom, based in St. Louis, sells kratom and hemp-derived THC products.
The employees join more than 15,000 cannabis industry workers nationwide as members of UFCW. Of the 17 locations that voted to organize, 14 are located in St. Louis and will be represented by UFCW Local 655. The remaining 3 in Illinois will be represented by UFCW Local 881.
The election result was expected since the company signed a neutrality agreement with the union in April.
“CBD Kratom cares about its workers and respects their legal rights to organize a union in their workplace,” said COO Jason Brandi. “We look forward to working with the UFCW to negotiate a union contract that meets the needs of our employees and our business.”
Garrett Farley, an organizer with Local 655, said that when employees at two stores first filed the petition in December, CBD Kratom leaders responded by essentially saying the process “doesn’t have to be so contentious, we can work together,” he said. the Missouri Union. Independent reported.
The agreement states that the company will remain neutral to the best of its ability, according to The Independent. It was even the company’s leaders’ idea to hold elections for 17 stores instead of just two.
“So that’s how it has been,” Farley said. “None of my workers have been harassed. They have not been fired. They haven’t been saying things like, ‘Oh, the union is the worst.’ “It’s been really nice.”
“It has been a marked difference from other companies,” he told the Independent. In December, Local 655 undertook a massive campaign to unionize cannabis workers throughout eastern Missouri, which is the area the local represents. A dozen organizers visited each of the approximately 100 marijuana dispensaries, twice.
An attempt to unionize by “post-harvest workers” at BeLeaf Medical’s Sinse cultivation facility in St. Louis has been blocked by continued legal challenges from their employer this year. In April, BeLeaf filed an appeal with the five-member National Labor Relations Board.
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