Pubdate: Thu, 22 Mar 2012
Source: Long Beach Press-Telegram (CA)
Copyright: 2012 Los Angeles Newspaper Group
Contact:  http://www.presstelegram.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/244

MARIJUANA CLINIC WORKERS' UNION IS A JOKE

UNION membership in the United States continued its decline last year.
Only 11.8 percent of workers were covered by labor agreements. So the
news that a new union was being formed should heighten that statistic
by an ounce and put a lid on the decline.

A new union whose formation was announced Thursday will represent Los
Angeles-area medical cannabis dispensary workers, who want to weed out
possible unfair labor practices.

What a downer for the labor union movement.

Agreements for collective bargaining have been reached with 14
L.A.-area dispensary operators, each with five to 20 employees.

Since L.A. and Long Beach, among other cities, still allow medical
marijuana dispensaries to operate, that number could rise.

The new union is a branch of the United Food and Commercial Workers
Local 770. The larger union represents grocery workers, food workers,
pharmacists and health care workers. A union representative noted that
"this is a step in professionalizing and stabilizing this new sector
of the health care industry ..."

Soon the new union will negotiate for loftier wages, decent hours and
health care benefits - which, it seems, could be settled by a joint
agreement to give workers a sample of their own wares for whatever
ails them.

Will bad trips be covered?

The dispensers union is a slap in the face to such long-established
and more legitimate unions.

The new union joins such fictional bargaining units as the Secret
Society of Super Villains (DC Comics) and the Amalgamated Brotherhood
of Editorial Page Punsters.

Since even medical marijuana is illegal, according the federal
government, will any gains dispensary workers get be labeled the wages
of sin? 
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MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.