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California’s pot industry has a ‘fake union’ problem

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California’s pot industry has a ‘fake union’ problem


Cannabis farmworkers surveys marijuana plants at Glass House Farms in Camarillo, Calif., on Feb. 9, 2023.

The Washington Post/The Washington Post via Getty Im

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It looks like it’s time to add “fake unions” to the long list of problems facing California’s multibillion-dollar legal pot industry.

Some of the biggest legal cannabis companies in California appear to be violating state law by working with organizations that claim to be labor groups but are accused of not actually attempting to fight for workers’ rights.

California law requires any pot company with more than 20 employees to sign a labor peace agreement with a “bona fide” labor union. The law is intended to provide workers with easier access to labor organizations that can petition the company for better wages and working conditions. 

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However, at least three of the biggest pot companies in the state have been caught working with a “fake union” called Professional Technical Union Local 33, or Pro-Tech, according to MJBizDaily. Last month, the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board determined that Pro-Tech was “not a bona fide labor organization” because they made no discernible effort to organize or represent any employees in the cannabis industry and even failed to have a physical presence in California.

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The board ultimately determined that Pro-Tech and the companies it contracted with had entered into a “sham relationship” in order to skirt the state law.

The list of companies working with Pro-Tech includes: Nabis, one of the biggest distribution companies in the state; Herbl, a major distributor that recently went out of business; and Glass House Brands, one of the biggest pot farming companies in the state, according to MJBizDaily.

The complaint against Pro-Tech was filed by the International Brotherhood of the Teamsters, a union that represents more than a million workers in North America. Peter Finn, a vice president at the Teamsters, told SFGATE in a phone interview that these sham unions hurt the rights of California’s cannabis industry workers.

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Cannabis farmworkers de-stem cannabis product prior to packaging at Glass House Farms in Camarillo, Calif., on Feb. 9, 2023.

Cannabis farmworkers de-stem cannabis product prior to packaging at Glass House Farms in Camarillo, Calif., on Feb. 9, 2023.

The Washington Post/The Washington Post via Getty Im

“This is not just about a labor peace agreement, this is about a worker’s ability to form a union to improve their wages, benefits and working conditions,” Finn said. “These fake unions and employers that engage with them are undermining the law and the will of the people.”

Last month, the Teamsters filed a second complaint, alleging that a union called the National Agricultural Workers Union was also “not a bona fide labor organization.” According to the Teamsters, the National Agricultural Workers Union has agreements with Caliva, a cannabis company owned by The Parent Company since 2021, an SEC filing shows. Rapper Jay-Z is an investor in The Parent Company.

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Anthony P. Raimondo, an attorney representing the National Agricultural Workers Union, said the Teamsters’ allegations were “flatly untrue” and described the group as a “startup union” with no paid staff that has slowly been working to organize workers.

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“A lot of what happened with this organization became stalled during COVID because there were limited opportunities to organize and do face-to-face activity,” Raimondo said in a phone interview with SFGATE.

Companies have 180 days to enter into a new labor peace agreement if they are found to be working with an entity that is not a bona fide labor organization, Department of Cannabis Control spokesperson David Hafner told SFGATE.

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So far, most of the implicated companies are staying silent. Nabis declined to comment when reached by SFGATE, and both Caliva and The Parent Company did not return requests for comment.

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A spokesperson for Glass House Brands said in an emailed statement to SFGATE that the company is working to find a replacement union to sign an agreement with. “We are in the process of complying with this change of status, and expect to make the adjustment within the time frame requested by the State,” the statement said.

Labor peace agreements are contracts between a company and a labor organization where the union agrees not to picket or boycott the business and the business agrees not to disrupt efforts by the union to organize workers and petition for better working conditions and pay. While they’re not specific to the cannabis industry, pot companies increasingly need to strike these deals as more states with legal weed mandate them thanks to heavy labor lobbying.

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Cannabis farmworkers de-stem cannabis product prior to packaging at Glass House Farms in Camarillo, Calif., on Feb. 9, 2023.

Cannabis farmworkers de-stem cannabis product prior to packaging at Glass House Farms in Camarillo, Calif., on Feb. 9, 2023.

The Washington Post/The Washington Post via Getty Im

Beginning in July 2024, the requirement for a labor peace agreement will apply to all companies with 10 or more employees, down from 20.

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Hafner said in an email to SFGATE that the California cannabis regulator does not actively investigate unions that enter into labor peace agreements with pot companies, instead relying on a “complaint-driven” system.

“DCC is actively working on efforts to increase transparency into licensees’ labor peace agreements, so that we can strengthen labor organizations’ and workers’ ability to file effective complaints,” Hafner said.

California has the largest number of legal cannabis industry workers in America, according to a 2022 report, with more than 83,000 people employed in the industry in 2021.

There are likely other cannabis companies that have signed agreements with Pro-Tech. An attorney for the organization told the state’s labor relations board that they had entered into 64 labor agreements with businesses in California’s cannabis industry.

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Millennial Democrat Ian Calderon announces bid for California governor

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Millennial Democrat Ian Calderon announces bid for California governor





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2 bills meant to speed up California Delta Tunnel project die without vote

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2 bills meant to speed up California Delta Tunnel project die without vote


Last Tuesday, the California Legislature cast a vote on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s controversial water tunnel project in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta by not voting at all.

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A couple of bills meant to speed up the process were allowed to die in committee before reaching the state Assembly. Opponents of the project consider it a victory in a fight to protect the water of the delta and the towns that live along its banks.

The delta town of Isleton sits frozen in time, a relic from its “Old West” past. It may be a little quiet these days, but it’s no ghost town — yet. It all depends on the river that runs alongside the town.

“Well, the history of Isleton is really deep in the river,” said Iva Walton. “Isleton used to be the main stop on the steamboat between Sacramento and San Francisco. So, it has a long history of depending on the traffic on the river.”

Walton owns the Mei Wah Beer Room, a former Chinese saloon and brothel in the 1800s. The whole town relies on people visiting the delta, and the proposal to bury a giant tunnel to siphon off billions of gallons of water farther up the Sacramento River to send to Southern California cities and Central Valley farms has drawn the ire of many people living along the delta.

“I think, in general, people are aware that it would be bad for the environment, for the property, the land, and the tourism that comes out here, if the tunnels were to drain a lot of the water from here,” Walton said. “It just seems ridiculous to take from something that is a fragile environment. There has to be other options.”

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Still, Newsom has made it his key climate resilience initiative. In his May budget revision, he included a pair of bills that would make things go faster by exempting it from CEQA, simplifying permitting, allowing the state to acquire land, authorizing bonds to pay for the project, and limiting future legal challenges to the tunnel.

His office released a statement saying: “For too long, attempts to modernize our critical water infrastructure have stalled in endless red tape, burdened with unnecessary delay. We’re done with barriers — our state needs to complete this project as soon as possible, so that we can better store and manage water to prepare for a hotter, drier future. Let’s get this built.” 

“Barriers are put in its way,” said Jon Rosenfield. “Those barriers being the state’s laws that everyone else needs to comply with.  But the governor seems determined to try to circumvent those laws to get his tunnel built.”

Rosenfield is science director for SF Baykeeper, one of the groups opposing the tunnel for the damage they think it would inflict on already faltering fish populations downstream in the delta. But he thinks it is the project’s whopping price tag that caused legislators to let the bills die without a vote.

“I think it means there’s not a lot of support for the Delta Conveyance Project,” Rosenfield said. “I think the majority party, which is the governor’s own party in the legislature, is rightfully concerned about the cost of living. And taking on another $60-100 billion project that doesn’t really address our problems, that would still require more money to address, is not a winning proposition at this time, or ever.”

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It’s also not a winning proposition in Isleton, where protecting the river is considered vital.

“It’s an amazing place and I would hate to see it go away,” said Walton.

If approved, the tunnel would run 45 miles from the Sacramento River to an existing reservoir near Livermore, before heading south via the California Aqueduct. Construction probably couldn’t begin until 2029 and would take at least 15 years to complete.

First, the project will have to undergo the normal regulatory process, at least for now.

Newsom said he would like to see the tunnel fully entitled by the time he leaves the governor’s seat. There are major political forces at work and no one seems to think this will be the end of it.

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Lawyers fear 1,000 children from Central America, dozens in California, are at risk of being deported

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Lawyers fear 1,000 children from Central America, dozens in California, are at risk of being deported


Lawyers and advocates fear about 1,000 Central American children, including dozens in California, are at risk of being deported to dangerous situations in their home countries before finishing their immigration court proceedings.

They believe the U.S. government is now expanding their list of hundreds of children across the country, which started with children from Guatemala, to include those from Honduras and El Salvador. Lawyers for some children saw their scheduled hearings disappear from the immigration court calendars in recent weeks.

“It has been heartbreaking and infuriating these last two weeks to have to warn our child clients that our government seeks to violate their rights and return them to danger,” said Marion Donovan-Kaloust, director of legal services at the Los Angeles-based Immigrant Defenders Law Center, which represents unaccompanied minors. “The fact that the government is doubling down on this cruel scheme should shock everyone’s conscience.”

In the middle of the night over Labor Day weekend, the government removed 76 Guatemalan children from shelters in Arizona and Texas. Many of their cases had vanished from calendars before the Department of Homeland Security placed them on a plane set to return to Guatemala without telling their parents, according to court documents.

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A transport van with migrants onboard departs the Valley International Airport, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, in Harlingen, Texas.

(Michael Gonzalez / Associated Press)

A federal judge blocked the flight in an emergency order as children sat aboard a plane on the tarmac. Many feared for their safety should they return to Guatemala, where attorneys say they face gang violence, physical abuse and neglect.

U.S. Department of Justice attorney Sara Welch said during a hearing this week there were “no immediate plans” to remove immigrant children from other countries. The Department of Homeland Security and the Refugee Resettlement office did not respond to requests for comment.

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A legal aid worker with knowledge of the situation said Honduran counterparts are expecting 300 children to be returned to the country, which would account for nearly all Honduran children in Office of Refugee Resettlement custody nationwide. Another 100 unaccompanied children from El Salvador are in U.S. government custody, said the worker, who requested anonymity to share sensitive details.

Earlier this summer, Guatemalan officials said U.S. officials had sent them a list of 609 teenagers ages 14-17 to be returned to the country. At least 40 immigrant children living in California were on that list, the legal aid worker said.

In a Sept. 6 sworn declaration, Angie Salazar, acting director of the refugee resettlement office, said that 457 Guatemalan children were initially identified as “potentially appropriate for reunification with a parent or legal guardian,” but that after reviewing individual cases, 327 children were determined to be ultimately eligible for removal from the U.S.

During the hearing this week, Welch walked back earlier government assertions that the children’s parents had asked for them to be returned, after lawyers for the minors produced a memo from the Guatemalan Attorney General that showed officials had contacted about 115 families, nearly half of whom were upset at the prospect of their child being returned.

Another 50 families said they were willing to accept the children, but had not asked for their return. In one case, the memo noted the parents said they will “do everything possible” to get their daughter out of the country again, “because she had received death threats.”

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Since the deportation attempt over the holiday weekend, attorneys for the children, who crossed the border without legal guardians and are now under the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, have been on high alert.

One attorney with the non profit Estrella del Paso in Texas said in sworn statements that on Sept. 5 she received an anonymous call from a shelter that the “government was planning to repatriate all children under the ORR custody without making any announcements.”

Another attorney, Roxana Avila-Cimpeanu, deputy director of the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project in Arizona similarly said the same day that “credible reports continued to stream in from the network regarding the imminent removal of Honduran children.”

The facilities that did not wake up the Guatemalan children in the middle of the night were sent a “DEMAND FOR COMPLIANCE” letter from the Office of Refugee Resettlement on Aug. 31.

“Negligent or intentional failure to comply with lawful requests from ORR regarding the care of the children in your care facility will result in prompt legal action and may result in civil and criminal penalties and charges, as well as suspension and termination of contractual relations with your facility,” states the letter, which was obtained by The Times.

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The letter frightened shelters and foster families, said Shaina Aber, executive director of the Acacia Center for Justice.

“We have heard from shelters and foster families that they are very nervous and they don’t know whether to follow the law as they understand it from years of doing this work, or to go along with this novel extrajudicial process,” Aber said.

Lawyers in the case are asking Judge Timothy R. Kelly, a Trump appointee, to extend the emergency order, which expires Sunday, and halt the removal of children from other countries who don’t wish to be returned. They argue U.S. officials do not have authority to remove them without providing them an opportunity to have their cases for asylum heard before an immigration judge.

“I am certain that people there who hurt me and threatened to kill me before will once again hurt me and will carry out their threats to kill me,” said one 17-year-old identified as D.I.R. in court records.

Among those named is a 16-year-old Guatemalan boy in long term foster care in Fullerton. His immigration proceedings had been closed and not yet decided. Another is a 16-year-old Guatemalan girl living in foster care in Riverside. She’s in immigration proceedings and is scared of being sent back. Both are being represented by the Immigrant Defenders Law Center.

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Some Guatemalan children in the U.S. were interviewed by officers with Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Efrén C. Olivares, Vice President of Litigation and Legal Strategy for the National Immigration Law Center. Some family members in Guatemala also received calls from local government officials who said their children would be sent back.

Olivares, one of the lead attorneys for the plaintiffs in Washington, warned if the court sided with the Trump administration, “they can do this to all children in ORR custody of every nationality.”

“That’s the worst-case scenario,” he said.

Guatemalan officials have publicly acknowledged efforts to coordinate with the U.S. to receive hundreds of children currently held in U.S. facilities.

The Honduran government posted on X Sept. 1 that it had initiated efforts to coordinate the “safe return of minors deported from the United States.”

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While the Salvadoran government has not released public communications about the repatriation of children from the U.S., Olivares pointed to the coordination between the two governments earlier this year, when hundreds of Venezuelan migrants in the U.S. were sent to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador.

“It’s worrisome that they have a very close relationship,” Olivares said

Meanwhile, two localized cases are playing out in Illinois and Arizona.

On Thursday, a federal judge in Arizona temporarily blocked the Trump administration from removing dozens of Guatemalan and Honduran children living there in shelters or foster care. Similarly, a federal judge stopped the removal of Guatemalan children in Illinois, and a hearing is set for Tuesday.

“These are children who are literally here without without a parent, and very vulnerable,” said Laura Smith, executive director of the Children’s Legal Center in Chicago and an attorney on the Illinois case, who also got word from a facility shortly after Labor Day that immigration officials were readying to take custody of Honduran children. “So I am surprised by the administration’s attacks.”

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The move to deport unaccompanied children comes amid broader efforts to strip away protections for young immigrants. For instance, the Administration has sought to end funding for lawyers who represent unaccompanied children. It is also seeking to end a decades-old agreement that requires minimum standards of care for children held in detention.



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