Ann Arbor’s Exclusive dispensary is facing a strike by employees wanting to unionize with the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union’s local branch, which represents 18,000 workers across food processing and cannabis industries in Michigan and is part of a larger network of over a million union employees across the States.
Not many dispensaries are unionized, so even though this strike is small (approximately 8 employees), it’s one of the longest strikes to occur in the cannabis industry, so it’s still momentous. The strike began August 28. The previous longest strike in cannabis history was in April 2023 at almost two weeks.
The strike was spurred in part by one of the union supporters being fired. The UFCW filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge, saying the firing was illegal. The union has also filed a complaint with the Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency, saying that Exclusive’s workers have the right to unionize and are being denied that right…