Two cannabis companies in Portland are requesting that a federal judge ban Measure 119, claiming that the new Oregon legislation violates employers’ free speech rights and is preempted by federal labor law.
The ballot proposal was approved by Oregonians in November. By requiring cannabis companies to sign so-called labor peace agreements and pledge to maintain their neutrality when union organizers speak with their employees, it aims to facilitate the formation of unions among cannabis workers.
The Portland-based Bubble’s Hash and Ascend Dispensary filed the complaint last week, claiming that the National Labor Relations Act preempts labor peace agreements. The companies are requesting an injunction from a judge to stop the measure’s implementation.
According to Rick Grimaldi, a partner at Fisher & Phillips, a national labor law firm with offices in Portland, Measure 119 violates the NLRA, which gives employees the right to refrain from participating in any union activity, and denies workers the freedom to choose whether or not to join a union.
According to Grimaldi, the NLRA also gives employers the freedom to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of unionization with workers as long as they don’t threaten, question, or offer anything in return for a worker’s vote against unionization or any non-support of the union.
Union officials have claimed that in order to resolve ambiguity in the way federal law applies to marijuana enterprises, Oregon needed labor peace agreements. Union representatives expressed worry that businesses were failing to recognize federal union protections for workers in the marijuana industry because cannabis is still illegal under federal law.
Attorney General Dan Rayfield, Governor Tina Kotek, OLCC Chair Dennis Doherty, and Craig Prins, executive director of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission, are named in the case. A request for comment was not immediately answered by a representative of the Oregon Department of Justice, which is in charge of defending state laws in court.
In its complaint, Ascend, a retailer in Northeast Portland whose OLCC license is up for renewal on Tuesday, claimed that it was unable to locate a labor organization as defined by the measure or that the terms of the labor peace agreement that was presented would require Ascend to break both federal and state law in order to renew its license.
According to court documents, the company was informed by OLCC early this month that it would not be able to renew its license unless it had either the labor peace agreement or a formal attestation between it and a union to that effect, as permitted by Measure 119.
In a similar vein, the provisions of a labor peace deal that was proposed to that company would compel Bubble Hash to violate both federal and state law in order to renew its processing license, which is set to expire in late May, according to the lawsuit.
–Jonathan Bach covers real estate and housing. You can contact him by phone at 503-221-4303 or by email at [email protected].
Your support is essential to our journalism.Sign up now.
Stories by
Jonathan Bach
-
Professional firms expand in downtown Portland, capitalizing on tech s exodus
-
Sortis Holdings could pay up to $800,000 to wipe out more than $8 million in debt
-
New Seasons workers end 9-day strike, agree to mediation over fired labor leader
-
Trump tariffs could blunt already stalling Oregon homebuilding, other construction, industry reps say
-
Portland Public Schools weighs canceling contract for Jefferson High School modernization
