Seeking higher pay, career advancement and better protection from the COVID-19 pandemic, cannabis workers from Chicago to Springfield have begun to unionize, planting a seed that could reshape the fast-growing marijuana labor landscape.
ROBERT CHANNICK
Chicago Tribune
The Illinois weed industry, fresh off surpassing $1 billion in revenue during its first year of recreational marijuana sales, may already be facing its âNorma Raeâ moment of union awakening.
Seeking higher pay, career advancement and better protection from the COVID-19 pandemic, cannabis workers from Chicago to Springfield have begun to unionize, planting a seed that could reshape the fast-growing marijuana labor landscape.
âThe industry has unfortunately just provided jobs, and not the well-paying careers that we all thought cannabis was going to generate,â said Moises Zavala, director of organizing at Local 881 of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which is representing cannabis workers in Illinois.
Essential workers in Texas, Mississippi say lifting mask mandates leaves them at risk washingtonpost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from washingtonpost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By ABHA BHATTARAI | The Washington Post | Published: March 5, 2021
Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See more staff and wire stories here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. The masks came off almost immediately, even faster than Alexis De Los Santos had feared. Fewer than half the shoppers who came through her grocery checkout line in Corpus Christi, Texas, this week wore face coverings. Many told her they were relieved Republican Gov. Greg Abbott was lifting the mask mandate and declaring the state open 100%. Some said they felt like they could finally breathe again.