San Jose union begins organizing pot workers

[kpete]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle


San Jose union begins organizing pot workers

Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer

A major California labor union is organizing medical cannabis workers in Oakland, a move that analysts say will help efforts to legalize marijuana and open the door for the union to organize thousands more workers if state voters pass a measure in November to allow recreational marijuana use by adults.

The 26,000-member United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5 in San Jose is believed to be the first union in the country to organize workers in a marijuana-related business. It is considering new job classifications including "bud tender" - a sommelier of sorts who helps medical marijuana users choose the right strain for their ailment.

"Union bud tender," said Carl Anderson, executive director of AMCD, an Oakland nonprofit medical cannabis dispensary that is going through the city's permitting process. The dispensary has 15 freshly minted union employees as it readies for an expected opening in December. "With full union health benefits and a pension," Anderson said.

With roughly 100 cannabis industry workers in Oakland now in the process of unionizing, the move is mutually beneficial for labor and marijuana advocates.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/28/MNNK1DLQTB.DTL&feed=rss.news

[Duer 157099]

1. I was sure this was The Onion

But I'm glad to see it's real!

Whoa dude! This has to be much like herding cats, though.

Bud tender! Awesome. College degrees to follow?

[Usrename]

2. How do I get hired as a bud tender?

I'm pretty sure that I'm qualified.

[musiclawyer]

3. The people are ahead of the policians as usual

There is a fair chance that the bud measure will pass in Novemeber, yet local governments here will lose millions in tax revenue by not having basic tax and planning ordinances ready to go and infrastructure in place to collect the taxes.