States legalizing cannabis are increasingly requiring that cannabis licensees enter agreements allowing unions access to their employees for organization activities. Some states go even further, not only requiring a labor peace agreement (LPA), but that employees agree on the terms of a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) soon after licensure. As we previously reported, such requirements are especially prevalent along the East Coast, with varying labor requirements imposed by New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Delaware, and Connecticut, as well as California.
Labor lawyers and experts have long questioned the legality of state labor mandates depriving employees of the right to determine whether and with whom to organize by imposing mandates that effectively require cannabis employers to have union workforces. But so far, licensees have been reluctant to challenge these requirements and raise the ire of regulators and powerful unions.
The day of reckoning for LPA requirements may be approaching. Rhode Island’s Cannabis Act (Cannabis Act), enacted in 2022 as part of its adult use authorization requires adult use cannabis providers to enter LPAs with unions as a condition of state licensure. Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center, a Rhode Island cannabis dispensary is challenging Rhode Island’s LPA mandate in federal court in Rhode Island, arguing that the Cannabis Act violates the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by effectively stripping Greenleaf of its bargaining power because Rhode Island law requires unionization to sell adult use cannabis.
Read more at duanemorris.com