Blog: Echo Park and Silver Lake Pot Clinics Say 'Meh' to Unions

With the City Council yet to act on a law to regulate (or ban) medical marijuana dispensaries, 14 Los Angeles Dispensaries are joining the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. 

The hope is that this alliance will give more incentive for the council to pass regulations that don't end up banning most or all of the dispensaries in Los Angeles.

Talking to workers and spokespeople at shops here in the neighborhood--none of which are unionizing--most workers were indifferent.

And at one location, after asking a spokesperson what he thought of dispensaries unionizing, I got a puzzled look and a "Huh? I never heard of that."

Everyone employed at the shops I visited seemed nervous about the decision that the Council will take. Nobody wants to lose their jobs. On the other hand, there are really no requirements or guidelines for dispensaries to follow. Here we are five years after the City Council took on this issue, it seems no closer to being resolved. 

Dispensaries allying themselves with unions is not a new thing, back in 2010 leading up to the vote on the Prop 19 initiative, a few dispensaries in Oakland and San Jose Joined UFCW Local 5 to try to get broader support for the marijuana legalization bill. Unfortunately, that year proved to be a brutal election cycle for the issue and it was defeated.

So as to what comes next for the dispensaries here is anyone's guess.