Pubdate: Thu, 03 Mar 2016 Source: Orange County Register, The (CA) Copyright: 2016 The Orange County Register Contact: http://www.ocregister.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/321 Author: Brooke Edwards Staggs EMPLOYEES UNIONIZE AT O.C.'S FIRST LICENSED POT SHOP SANTA ANA Orange County's first licensed medical marijuana dispensary also has become the first in the county to unionize, offering benefits to workers plus a boost to the shrinking organized labor movement. South Coast Safe Access, which employs up to 22 people at its Warner Avenue shop, signed a labor agreement with United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 324. "This is a game changer," said Derek Worden, president of South Coast Safe Access. "We're bringing something to the industry that really doesn't exist" in the county. The contract provides employees minimum starting pay of $13.50 an hour, health benefits, vacation and paid pension contributions. It is another sign of the growing alliance between organized labor and the rapidly emerging retail marijuana industry. Already, UFCW has thrown its support behind state and local campaigns aimed at permitting additional dispensaries. South Coast Safe Access started negotiating with UFCW 324 after Gov. Jerry Brown in October signed the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act. One of the bills in that act, SB643, requires marijuana business owners with 20 or more workers to sign agreements saying they won't block unionization if they want to get licensed by the state starting in 2018. Workers at South Coast Safe Access voted unanimously to jump ahead of the deadline and unionize now, Worden said. UFCW began signing labor agreements in 2010 with dispensaries in the Bay Area. The South Coast Safe Access pact marks the first with a dispensary for the union's local branch, based in Buena Park, Executive Vice President Rick Eiden said. That local, UFCW 324, has 23,000 members in the retail food and drug industries throughout Orange and south Los Angeles counties, Eiden said. It includes workers at most major grocery stores, plus pharmacy workers at CVS and Rite Aid. "We saw an opportunity to bring that legitimacy to the cannabis industry through not only just providing safe working conditions," but also to advocate for additional training for workers, Eiden said. UFCW 324 also is in talks with other dispensaries licensed to operate in Santa Ana, Eiden said. The potential growth of workers in the industry offers organized labor an opportunity to offset declining membership, which has fallen from 20.1 percent of the U.S. workforce in 1983 to 11.1 percent in 2015. The drop has been less severe in California, which had 15.9 percent union membership in 2015 down from 18.9 percent in 1989. Representatives for UFCW have worked with proponents of the leading recreational marijuana legalization initiative headed toward the November ballot, Eiden said. The union backed an unsuccessful 2010 state initiative to legalize pot for recreational use, but hasn't yet endorsed the pending measure. UFCW 324 leaders also are encouraging Orange County cities to lift marijuana cultivation and sales bans and allow for medical access to pot. Supporting more dispensaries "is an opportunity to grow the membership," Eiden said. "But I think it is a dual purpose. We're also helping an industry grow and develop a positive image." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom