For the first time a Canadian cannabis producer sets up a worker´s union

After a failed earlier attempt, Potanicals Green Growers workers are the first of Canada's nearly 300 licensed producers to unionize. On Wednesday, UFCW 1518 welcomed workers at the Peachland, British Columbia-based medicinal cannabis cultivation and processing facility as the youngest member of the union's BC BUD division. Potanicals employees first attempted to join the union in September last year. These efforts were thwarted by the producer's parent company the following month by laying off several workers who had just held a vote to certify the union on October 1st and 2nd. But now Potanicals is officially the third B.C. cannabis company to join the BC BUD division. Victoria-based Clarity Cannabis joined the division last year and became the first weed retailer in Canada to unionize. That month, the country's longest-running unlicensed dispenser - the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club - also joined the union. "Our BC BUD division continues to grow because workers in the cannabis industry know their worth and the power they can wield when working together," Kim Novak, president of UFCW 1518, said in a statement. Budtender and other cannabis workers want to work in the industry as a career, not just a job, the union says. Not only do workers want to advance their cannabis science education, they want to shape the industry with fair jobs and fair wages while living in Canada's expensive cities, says Eva Prkachin, a spokeswoman for UFCW 1518. Improved safety arrangements, safe working conditions and social benefits are other issues raised by the workers. As the provinces deemed cannabis companies indispensable during the pandemic, workers in the industry were even more motivated to organize and fight for safe jobs, explains Prkachin. Potanicals employees started negotiations on their new collective agreement earlier this month. The final agreement included the introduction of a contractually secured complaints procedure to solve problems in the workplace, guaranteed wage increases and five paid sick days per year.