Canadian labor organizers say unionization and strikes among cannabis retail employees are being driven by worker concerns including low pay and health and safety issues.
The latest union activism is causing ripples within Canada’s marijuana industry: A cannabis retail strike by one union in Quebec has caused store closures, while another Quebec-based union recently ended its strike after negotiations.
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Although no definitive data exists on exactly how many of Canada’s more than 3,000 cannabis stores use union labor, the vast majority of cannabis retailers are not union organized.
However, unions represent significant numbers of cannabis retail workers in several provinces, including:
Private-sector union United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), which represents close to 500 employees at cannabis stores in British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario. Two public-sector unions in Quebec representing approximately 450 employees of the province’s cannabis retail monopoly. Private-sector union Unifor, which represents 1,200 Newfoundland grocery
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