Pubdate: Mon, 03 Jun 2013 Source: Wall Street Journal (US) Copyright: 2013 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Contact: http://www.wsj.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487 Author: Erica E. Phillips UNION HOPES POT BET PAYS OFF LOS ANGELES - A union of medical-marijuana workers in this city is betting on a smaller, but healthier, pot-dispensary business. The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770 backed Proposition D, the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Ordinance, which passed with 63% of the vote in citywide balloting last month. That measure would ban all medical-marijuana businesses except for about 135 more-established shops, several of which employ UFCW-organized workers. More than 600 medical-marijuana workers in Los Angeles have joined the UFCW since it organized its first cannabis members locally last year. The union believes Prop D will secure those workers' jobs, which provide relatively good wages and health benefits, by effectively weeding out hundreds of newer storefronts that have sprouted up in recent years. Backers of the measure say that if it hadn't passed, the city likely would have banned the dispensaries altogether-a move that was recently declared legal by the state Supreme Court when one pot shop in Riverside, about 60 miles to the east, challenged that city's ban. The UFCW also backed eventual winner Eric Garcetti over Wendy Greuel in the May 21 mayoral race, one of the only unions to do so. Mr. Garcetti had supported Prop D and as a city councilman helped to pass legislation favored by the 30,000-member local's retail members. While marijuana is illegal in most states and under federal law, 18 states and the District of Columbia have decriminalized it for medical use or for possession of small quantities. Californians voted to legalize marijuana for medicinal use in 1996, becoming the first state to do so. Nationally, the UFCW has added thousands of members to its rolls in the past two years in the hemp and medical-cannabis industries. The union said membership is growing rapidly among locals in California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Maryland. The union also is working to organize in Maine, Connecticut, Nevada, New Mexico, Massachusetts and Arizona. Last summer in Los Angeles, amid frustration with an escalating number of pot shops, the City Council enacted a ban on all dispensaries. But it was overturned quickly after a public outcry, led largely by the UFCW cannabis workers union. Several City Council members turned to drafting Prop D, which is slated to take effect this month and would allow shops operating since before September 2007 to remain open, as long as they had registered with the city, had operated continuously since then and were abiding by all rules. Many officials say the ordinance maintains access for chronically ill patients while cutting down on shops they believe were contributing to neighborhood nuisance and crime. Rigo Valdez, Local 770's director of organizing, said, "In this instance, businesses, employees and consumers had the same goal in mind, which is preserving safe access, because preserving safe access also preserves good jobs, and also preserves the businesses." Mr. Valdez said the first group of dispensary workers to organize here focused on those shops that "we felt had a standard." Mr. Valdez said cashiers, delivery workers and others in unionized dispensaries make at least roughly $12 an hour, have health benefits and the assurance of a safe workplace, such as a security guard at the door. David Welch, a lawyer who represents 86 post-2007 dispensaries that supported a competing measure that would have allowed more shops to stay open, said the new ordinance created an unfair marketplace. "Our group represents more of a free-market approach to medical marijuana," Mr. Welch said. He added that the ordinance could harm thousands of industry workers and said his clients intend to challenge the constitutionality of the measure once it takes effect. The Los Angeles local has the backing of the Greater Los Angeles Collective Alliance, a group of marijuana businesses, because it says the union bolsters the industry's advocacy efforts. Lowell Turner, a professor at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, said it is "perfectly rational" for the union to choose to represent a select number of businesses. Drawing an analogy to the construction industry, Mr. Turner said, "If you let every Tom, Dick or Harry build whatever they want with day laborers and no building codes, that's going to kill unions, kill good jobs and kill upstanding firms that are willing to work within the law." In recent years, Los Angeles officials have struggled with rapid proliferation of the shops, with estimates ranging from 600 to more than 1,000 operating. The number of shops is hard to quantify because many aren't registered with the city. Many residents complain the shops attract loitering and criminal activity, promote marijuana use among children and recreational users and worsen traffic. Now, said City Councilman Paul Koretz, a strong supporter of the ordinance, the city has to address the task of shutting down the hundreds of shops that weren't exempted by the new law, noting, "That's a big step." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom