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On January 12, 2026, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed Assembly Bill 4182 amending key sections of the New Jersey Employer-Employee Relations Act (NJEERA). Originally enacted in 1968, NJEERA governs labor relations in the state’s public sector and established the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) to oversee collective bargaining and dispute resolution for public employees.

This new legislation, which contains…

Continue Reading New Jersey Expands Labor Protections to Cannabis Employees

Since our 2024 update on California’s Labor Peace Agreement (“LPA”) requirement, the landscape for licensees in recreational cannabis states such as California and New York has remained murky. Although the evidence around compliance and enforcement of these rules has been scant, that has not prevented licensees from continuing to lodge legal challenges to these mandates. Some of these challenges have been rejected, some have succeeded based on preemption theories under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) and violations of the First Amendment, and some remain undecided.Continue Reading Update on LPA Requirements for Licensure in Legal Cannabis States

It is not often that the government has the opportunity to regulate and oversee an entirely brand new market; and, in the case of California, when it legalized recreational cannabis for adult-use, it decided to mandate involvement of labor unions in the state’s emerging cannabis industry, through implementation of a Labor Peace Agreement (“LPA”) requirement. Because this fundamental choice by the state has posed headaches and dilemmas for licensees, cannabis business operators in California should ensure they receive counsel from reputable management-side labor attorneys before entering into any LPAs with unions. Amidst this haze and confusion, we offer some context and observations from a labor and management relations perspective.

Of note, despite going into effect over a month ago, only a tiny percentage of licensees and operators are complying with the mandate. Moreover, whether intentional or not, California’s LPA mandate has caused a union turf war, where bigger established unions have been looking to muscle out their smaller competitors for the dues of the thousands of workers in California’s burgeoning canna-industry. Critically, however, the legality of the LPA mandate is still being determined by the courts, where serious Constitutional questions abound, and because other states have been considering similar mandates, observers will continue monitoring what happens in California on this issue.Continue Reading Purple Haze: LPA Mandate Poised to Continue Causing Confusion and Chaos for California Cannabis Licensees

This past month, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) took a big step forward in its efforts to unionize cannabis employees.

On May 25, 2021, UFCW announced an agreement to unionize the entire workforce of Union Harvest and Nature’s Root Labs.  Nature’s Root Labs is the manufacturer for Union Harvest.  This agreement encompasses workers in production, packaging, purchasing, sales and…
Continue Reading Continued Labor Movement Momentum in Cannabis

With the cannabis industry’s growth into a multi-billion dollar industry, employing about 321,000 individuals, comes the intensification of focus from unions viewing the industry as a large growth opportunity.  Much of the union organizing to date has been led by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which launched a cannabis organizing campaign in 2011.

Since October 2020, efforts to unionize workers in the cannabis industry kicked into overdrive.  Ten cannabis facility workers voted to unionize in those five months throughout the country in Rhode Island, California, DC, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Illinois.

This past month in Chicago, 40 employees at Sunnyside Cannabis Dispensary in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood became the first dispensary workers in Illinois to ratify a union contract. Additionally the state’s first cannabis union contract was ratified in December by more than 180 workers at the Cresco Labs cultivation center in Joliet.Continue Reading Unionization Efforts Spreading Throughout the Cannabis Industry

On January 25, 2021, the National Labor Relations Board’s Division of Advice released an Advice Memo on the issue of whether certain cannabis workers were exempt from the National Labor Relations Act as agricultural workers. The Advice Memo noted at the outset that the “Board has not ruled on whether employees of a marijuana enterprise are agricultural laborers or statutory…

Continue Reading NLRB Division of Advice Finds Cannabis Workers Not Covered by Federal Labor Law

As you might recall from previous blog posts, more and more states are requiring cannabis companies to enter into labor peace agreements with unions in order to obtain their licenses, but could that soon go up in smoke?

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (“NRTWF”) asked the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) for help when New Jersey…
Continue Reading Is New Jersey’s LPA and CBA Requirement One Toke Over the Line?