Cannabis workers seeking union recognition strike in Ann Arbor

https://www.freep.com/story/news/marijuana/2025/09/04/cannabis-workers-strike-ann-arbor-union-rights/85958268007/

Adrienne Roberts
Detroit Free Press

Several employees of a Michigan marijuana company are hoping to accomplish a still-rare feat in the state’s nearly 6-year-old recreational cannabis industry: to unionize.

Eight employees of Exclusive Brands in Ann Arbor, which grows, processes and sells marijuana at seven dispensaries throughout Michigan, have been on strike since Aug. 28 over the company’s failure to recognize its workers’ right to join a union and its firing of a union supporter in its processing facility, according to a spokesperson for the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (the union the employees are hoping to join).

While it's unknown exactly how many of the nearly 40,000 cannabis industry workers in Michigan are represented by a union, only a few unionized dispensaries, processing facilities and grow operations have emerged across Michigan in recent years, making the strike at Exclusive Brands a notable event in the industry's labor movement.

The strike at Exclusive Brands Ann Arbor began the day after UFCW filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board in response to the firing.

FULL story at link above.