Agricultural workers in the United States don’t have the same collective bargaining rights and protections as other workers, but for a few thousand workers in Washington, that’s about to change.
Starting July 27, agricultural cannabis grow workers in Washington will have a state-recognized right to unionize — and have those rights enforced if employers retaliate.
House Bill 1141, which was signed into law April 22 by Gov. Bob Ferguson, gives the Washington Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) authority over collective bargaining for agricultural cannabis grow workers.
United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 3000 worked on HB 1141 with one of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self (D-Mukilteo).
“We closed a long-standing gap in worker protections to give cannabis grow growers in Washington state the same basic rights that their peers who work in retail and processing already have,” UFCW Local 3000 political director Dustin Lambro said.
As its name suggests, PERC deals almost entirely with public sector workers. Under the new law, the commission will now also administer collective bargaining rights for agricultural cannabis grow workers.
Agricultural worker unions like United Farm Workers already represent farm workers in Washington, but not in the cannabis industry. Farm workers aren’t prohibited from unionizing, but they aren’t included in the protections provided to other workers under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). That means employers don’t face court orders or back pay requirements for firing pro-union workers or refusing to bargain.
PERC Executive Director Michael Sellars said the agency has only dealt with agriculture peripherally, like through its jurisdiction over the Department of Agriculture and ports.
“We have jurisdiction over certain aspects of the flow of the commodity, but this is the first where we actually have jurisdiction over the workers doing the agricultural work,” Sellars said.
PERC oversees collective bargaining rights for around 475,000 public sector employees. Washington’s cannabis industry is estimated to employ roughly 6,000 agricultural workers.
Lambro said UFCW Local 3000 pushed for a bill focused on cannabis, rather than all agricultural workers, because they’ve already organized workers in the cannabis industry but aren’t expanding into other agricultural sectors. Local 3000 represents workers at eight cannabis dispensaries and two processing facilities.
Lambro said he doesn’t expect a huge rush of unionizations as soon as the law goes into effect, because it will take time for workers to learn their rights.
Cannabis is one of the most challenging industries to organize, Lambro said, because it’s a relatively new industry, with very high worker turnover.
