Two Oregon marijuana businesses are suing the state, seeking to block the implementation of a voter-approved law mandating that cannabis licensees enter into labor peace agreements with workers.
The companies—Bubble’s Hash and Ascend Dispensary—filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon on Wednesday, alleging that the labor policy requirement is “unconstitutional” under federal law.
Under the voter-approved law, a marijuana businesses that’s unable to provide proof of a labor peace agreement can be subject a denial or revocation of a marijuana business license.
The lawsuit names Gov. Tina Kotek (D), Attorney General Dan Rayfield (D) and Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission’s Dennis Doherty and Craig Prins as defendants.
The cannabis businesses are “seeking an injunction to stop enforcement of Measure 119 because it requires Oregon cannabis businesses to enter into neutrality agreements with Unions in order to obtain or maintain their licenses and in fact goes further because it requires those businesses, as a condition of licensure, to affirmatively support a union’s efforts to organize,” attorneys for the companies said in a press release.
“The Plaintiffs allege that Measure 119 violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Article I of the Constitution which prohibits states from passing any law impairing the obligations of contracts,” they said. “They further claim that Measure 119 is pre-empted by the federal National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), consistent with Article VI of the Constitution, which designates it and the Laws of the United States as the supreme Law of the Land.”
“If enforced, Measure 119 could deny licenses to those cannabis businesses that fail to follow the law and would irreparably harm those businesses and their employees, many of whom rely on their employer for their family’s income and benefits, including health care. Measure 119 is anti-employer, anti-employee and anti-family.”
Measure 119 passed with about 57 percent of the vote last November.
The labor agreement that’s required under the law is defined as a contractually enforceable understanding that the employer must “remain neutral with respect to a bona fide labor organization’s representatives communicating with the employees of the applicant or the licensee about the rights afforded to such employees.”
A regional chapter of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)—UFCW Local 555—submitted more than 160,000 signatures to qualify the measure for ballot placement last year.
During the Oregon legislature’s 2023 session, lawmakers declined to enact a bill containing similar provisions. UFCW lobbied for that legislation, and it decided to mount a campaign to let voters decide on the issue this year after that effort failed.
UFCW pressed legislators to enact a bill to codify the labor protections in 2023. And after it was effectively killed by a top House Democrat, it announced that it would be leading a recall effort to oust him.
Read the Oregon lawsuit over the marijuana industry labor agreement law below:
Montana GOP Senator’s Bill Would Require People To Register And Pay A $200 Annual Fee To Use Recreational Marijuana
Photo courtesy of WeedPornDaily.
The post Oregon Marijuana Businesses Sue State Over Voter-Approved Law Requiring Labor Peace Agreements For Industry Workers appeared first on Marijuana Moment.
No comments so far.
Be first to leave comment below.