A Chicago Weed Worker Explains Why He and His Coworkers Are Unionizing
As the legal marijuana industry continues to expand across the United States, unions are expanding with it. We spoke to a weed worker in Chicago who’s in the middle of a union drive at Windy City Cannabis about how low pay, dangerous working conditions under COVID-19, and a lack of “democratic control” on the job led him and his coworkers to organize.
Dispensary workers who are part of UFCW Local 770 in California. (WNY Labor Today)
Several years after the legalization of medicinal marijuana, Illinois legalized its recreational use on January 1, 2020. Business has been booming: in 2020 alone, Illinois weed sales topped $1 billion.
As tends to happen under capitalism, very little of that money has gone to the workers who actually create the profit. Workers at Windy City Cannabis allege that lack of adequate compensation and protection in such a lucrative industry, amid a pandemic, led them to organize with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 881. UFCW has been leading the organizing charge of cannabis workers now representing tens of thousands across the country.
Jacobin contributor Peter Lucas interviewed Jake Lytle, a product specialist at Windy City Cannabis, about their union drive, what it’s like to work and organize in the marijuana industry, and why unions are necessary for any worker’s safety and protection.
This article is for subscribers only. Please login or subscribe to access our full archives and beautiful print and digital magazine starting at just $3 a month.