It's been more than seven months since employees of St. Louis-based cannabis company Belief Medical held an election to form a union.
The majority of ballots (11 out of 16) remain closed.
“It's been quite a while,” said Will Bradham, a post-harvest technician at the company's synth facility in St. Louis. “We're just, like, what's going on? Why is this happening? We're just waiting in the dark.”
The reason for the delay is likely that Bradham and his fellow “post-harvest” team members exist in a gray area of national labor law, something that could change if their union efforts are successful. be.
Shortly after Bradham and other employees filed a union petition last September, the company argued before the National Labor Relations Board that the employees were agricultural workers, not manufacturing workers. .
And agricultural workers do not have the right to form unions under the country's labor laws.
But Mr. Bradham and his fellow employees, along with the NLRB's regional director, believe they are close to tobacco processing plant workers, who courts have repeatedly found are not agricultural workers.
“I've never touched a live plant at work,” said Bradham, who organizes with International Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 655.
The company has taken the fight to its five-member national board of directors, asking it to set a national precedent on whether employees who process dried cannabis plants have the right to unionize.
George Suggs, a St. Louis labor attorney, said the NLRB's regional director, who has twice sided with workers, said that's probably why it took so long for the vote to begin.
“If this is a unique situation, there's no reason for (regional directors) to be out front and release ballots,” Suggs said. “Ultimately, the board will resolve this.”
But that doesn't mean the fight is over, Suggs said.
If the national board sides with the employee, the company will likely refuse to negotiate a decision in federal court.
“Employers have the ability to squeeze the results of their campaigns,” Suggs said. This is especially true for companies with high employee turnover.
By the time a resolution is passed several years later, union support has eroded, he said.
“That's the tactic,” Suggs said. “That's what employers have done over the 40-plus years I've been practicing labor law.”
A long battle awaits
Ahmad Haines, a postharvest technician at BeLeaf Medical's synth facility, told company representatives that the company wanted to continue contesting the voting status of 11 employees in the Feb. 6 unionization election. It's reacting. The election was held at the St. Louis Public Library Barr Branch (Rebecca Rivas/Missouri Independent).
During the seven-month waiting period, employees became aware of changes in their job descriptions that likely improved the company's position in this lawsuit.
“It seems like they're trying to push our work more and more in the direction of quote-unquote farmers,” said Ahmad “Ziggy” Haynes, a post-harvest technician at BeLeaf Medical's synth facility. Ta.
He said the company employs temporary workers to perform packaging and other manufacturing tasks that he and other union members previously performed.
The company began hiring temporary workers shortly after employees filed to unionize in September 2023, according to records of a recent staff meeting led by the company's human resources staff obtained by The Independent.
At the meeting, a human resources representative said Beleaf had “used up” 150 temporary employees since October. He told temporary workers they shouldn't expect to be hired full-time right away, but they should still feel like part of the team.
Andrea Wilkes, the NLRB regional director for six Midwest states, has twice ruled this year that post-harvest workers' jobs are similar to those of tobacco processing plant workers. .
“It has been determined that removing the veins from tobacco leaves and fermenting the leaves falls outside the definition of agriculture under federal labor law,” Wilkes said in his Jan. 25 ruling.
The company's reaction to her decision indicates that unionized employees will likely have a long fight ahead.
A Feb. 13 letter from Mr. Belief's attorney to Mr. Wilkes said the company intends to fight the employees' unionization efforts in federal court.
“While we understand and respect the Board's recent decisions on this matter, we will save this matter for submission to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit,” the letter states. I am.
Suggs said a company's refusal to negotiate with the union would be a “technical violation” and could be taken to court.
That would allow them to file a petition for review in federal court, which would challenge the fundamental issue of the case – whether they are farmers – “in front of a large panel of federal judges.” said Suggs.
“It's become a bigger issue, especially in the 8th Circuit,” Suggs said. “Because there are a lot of very conservative judges who are hostile to the labor movement in general.”
UFCW Local 655 organizer Sean Shannon said it was clear this was the company's plan from the beginning.
“They made it clear in their initial statement that they intended to take this matter all the way to the Eighth Circuit, which is several stages of a dispute,” Shannon said of the company's February letter. said. “I sense a clear intent to sabotage this union at all costs, which ironically proves how much these people need it.”
