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Employees at one of New Jersey’s largest cannabis dispensary brands want to vote on whether they can remove United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 360 as their union representative.

Michael Potter, a lead warehouse technician for Green Thumb Industries, recently filed a decertification petition with the National Labor Relations Board, according to the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. The action represents 275 coworkers at the MSO’s five locations in the state

The NRTWLDF is a nonprofit providing free legal aid to Potter. The group said the challenge focuses on the so-called “card check” unionization campaigns that Potter claims UFCW union bosses used to pressure his coworkers.

NRTWLDF noted that with card checks, union officials can bypass the secret ballot election process – as long as a majority of workers want to unionize.

Without a secret ballot, employees claimed that “union officials can repeatedly solicit and pressure workers face-to-face to demand they sign union authorization cards, which are then counted as ‘votes’ to impose the union on workers,” NRTWLDF said.

Additionally, New Jersey lacks a right-to-work law. That means union officials can demand that workers pay union dues or fees just to stay employed. Workers who didn’t want to join the union or oppose it must still adhere to its contract decisions, the organization noted.

In a statement, Potter said, “Many of us believe the UFCW does not advance our interests and that we would be better off without the union in our workplace. We simply seek a secret ballot election that was denied to us when the union was installed, so we can determine what the majority of Green Thumb employees want.”

Out of state interests

Headquartered in Chicago, Green Thumb has 20 manufacturing facilities and 98 retail locations across 14 U.S. markets. Within New Jersey, it operates the Rise dispensaries in Paterson, Bloomfield and Paramus. It also has two manufacturing sites in Paterson and Hackettstown.

A spokesperson for Green Thumb Industries did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

New Jersey launched its recreational cannabis industry in April 2022. The law includes provisions requiring companies to negotiate in good faith if their employees want union representation. Over the past two-and-a-half years, workers at many independently owned dispensaries have organized. So too have storefronts owned by large MSOs, like Curaleaf, Ascend, Verano and Ayr Wellness.

The majority of shops unionized with UFCW Local 360. The union represents hundreds of thousands of cannabis industry workers. Members work in dispensaries, labs, manufacturing, processing, delivery and grow facilities across the U.S.

In a statement to NJBIZ, UFCW Local 360 Director of Organizing Hugh Giordano, said, “The UFCW organized and negotiated a contract which was voted on by the members of GTI. We were able to negotiate raises, holiday pay, and a strong grievance procedure”

“The organization pushing this decertification … is an out of state organization, which is anti-union and is funded by billionaires, who wish to destroy worker rights and labor unions,” he said. “The UFCW will continue to stand and fight for our members at GTI and will work to educate them on the dangers of listening to far-right organizations which have no loyalty to the workers of New Jersey.”

The petition came just days before a new National Labor Relations Board rule took effect Sept. 30. The change makes it harder for workers to challenge union installations via card check. Previously, employees had a 45-day window to petition for a secret ballot decertification vote, provided proper notice was posted.

National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix commented, “If Mr. Potter had filed his decertification petition just a week later, workers at Green Thumb Industries would be denied their right to vote out union officials who seized power over them in a hasty and coercive manner.”