Oakland Pot Club Says Union, Yes!
Dan Clore
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local-beat/Oakland-Pot-Club-Says-Union-Yes-jw-95052719.html
Oakland Pot Club Says Union, Yes!
Oaksterdam University employees join UFCW Local 5
By JACKSON WEST
Updated 5:37 PM PDT, Thu, May 27, 2010
At a ceremony hosted by Oakland City Council's Rebecca Kaplan, 100
employees at medical marijuana dispensary and education hub Oaksterdam
University turned in their membership cards to join the United Food and
Commercial Workers Union, Local 5.
It may well be the first union pot shop in the country, if not the world.
While it will help employees collectively bargain and resolve disputes
with management, it also gives owner Richard Lee political allies with
labor organizations.
Lee is responsible for the Tax Cannabis 2010 ballot measure, which would
decriminalize recreational use of cannabis, which polls suggest has
neatly divided California voters.
As legitimization of the multi-billion dollar business in marijuana
could set the stage for a growth industry, one that UFCW is now in on
the ground floor of. Which could help sway other growth-oriented unions
like the Service Employees International Union.
Of course, police officer associations and the correctional officers
union are unlikely to throw their support behind the ballot measure,
since more drug arrests means more money and jobs for law enforcement
and prisons.
It remains to be seen if the ballot measure will pick up a new string of
labor endorsements, or whether it will pay off politically for the likes
of Kaplan, who's running for Mayor of Oakland.
Jackson West loves it when labor and civil liberties meet, as in this
case and that of San Francisco's worker-owned Lusty Lady.
--
Dan Clore
New book: _Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon_:
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My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
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All laws are good, to those who draw a salary for
their enforcement.
-- Clark Ashton Smith
TCBEvolver
when you are buying that hash or that weed.
Remember somewhere our union's growing,
our wages going to feed the kids, and mortgage deed.
We work hard, but who's complaining?
Thanks to the P.O.T. we're toking our way!
So always look for the union label,
it says we're able to get baked in the U.S.A.!