Medical marijuana facility design can have a big impact on a dispensaries ability to attract and retain customers, but a recent move by one dispensary in Orange County, CA will impact the actual people working there. South Coast Safe Access, a dispensary in Santa Ana, has signed a collective bargaining agreement with United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 324, according to the Los Angeles Times. The new cannabis business development will go into effect next Monday.
The use of medical marijuana has increased substantially over recent years as more and more health care professionals, lawmakers, and everyday citizens recognize the value and benefits it can have. In fact, medical marijuana consultants will be the first to tell you that 76% of doctors now approve of its use.
Currently, California’s state minimum wage is $10 an hour. Under the new unionization workers in the South Coast Safe Access medical marijuana facility design will make no less than $13.50 per hour. The terms also include employer-paid medical benefits as well as employer contributions to a retirement pension. The city of Los Angeles has 26 total unionized medical marijuana facility designs.
“[Unionizing dispensaries] really coincides with the work we’ve done in the retail drug industry,” said UFCW Local 324 executive vice president Rick Eiden. “Employees interact with the patients in determining their needs and working on a sensible prescription for what their needs are.?
Today, about half of Americans report to have trying marijuana before (47%) and more than half believe it should be legal (52%). It seems medical marijuana business branding has done a good job.
Proponents of the medical marijuana industry are hopeful that moves like this will only help to increase the already growing sentiment in this country that not only cannabis should be legal, but that it is a credible industry. This move won’t just help the medical marijuana consulting firms though. Eiden believes it could help the union industry that has struggled in recent years.
“Here in California, we’ve maintained our numbers in the labor movement,” Eiden said. “But we haven’t seen large numbers of growth in decades.”
