Pot-club Workers In Oakland Unionize

[Richard]

"So, son...what are you planning on doing now that you've graduated from high school?"

"I've been accepted to Oaksterdam University's pharmacological school."

And so it goes...

Richard's $.02

Pot-club Workers In Oakland Are First To Unionize
USAToday, 28 May 2010

Marijuana workers of the world unite? At least in Oakland, Calif., where a major union has become the first to organize U.S. employees of medical-pot dispensaries.

Local 5 of the United Food and Commercial Workers has announced that about 100 employees of Oaksterdam University — "Quality Training for the Cannabis Industry" — and two subsidiaries have voted "to enhance job security and gain a clearer voice on the job." One new job classification being negotiated: "bud tender," which the San Francisco Chronicle describes as "a sommelier of sorts who helps medical marijuana users choose the right strain for their ailment."

Imagine the benefits package.

The union said it intends to try to organize the state's other pot clubs, which observers say will bolster efforts to legalize marijuana. Californians will vote on that in November even though growing and selling marijuana remains illegal nationwide. California patients need a prescription to receive medical weed.

The Los Angeles Times and the local NBC affiliate have more about the organizing effort.

Oakland is the first U.S. city to tax medical marijuana dispensaries, and it may soon be the first to allow and tax commercial pot growing.

http://content.usatoday.com/communit...-to-unionize/1