Workers at FRESH Cannabis’ Cultivation Site in New Jersey Vote to Unionize
United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 360 announced that cultivation employees at FRESH Cultivation, in Somerset, N.J., have voted to unionize.
This vote marks the third FRESH Cannabis site in New Jersey to join Local 360. The company’s dispensaries in Eatontown and Elizabeth previously voted in favor of union representation, highlighting the continued success and expansion of UFCW Local 360’s targeted labor organizing movement across the state’s growing cannabis industry.
“Working with the union means security in my job and in my daily life,” said FRESH Cultivation employee John Edwards III. “Having people who are on my side to support my needs in the background is reassuring. The relationship I have with UFCW Local 360 has been great so far, and I’m looking forward to what’s to come.”
Multistate cannabis company FRESH Cannabis operates in New Jersey, Colorado and Delaware. Describing itself as “a modern legacy” brand, it operates cultivation facilities and its own dispensaries. Those two distinct operations represent an important cross-section of New Jersey’s legal cannabis economy that Local 360 has worked to organize and professionalize since the beginning of legalization.
“Cultivation workers are the backbone of this industry,” said Hugh Giordano, director of organizing for UFCW Local 360. “It’s their skill, care and commitment that determine product quality, consistency and safety. By choosing to unionize with UFCW Local 360, these FRESH employees are reminding us that organizing is about partnership, about helping businesses succeed while ensuring that workers can build stable, family-sustaining careers.”
For more than a decade, UFCW Local 360 has been at the forefront of efforts to ensure that New Jersey’s cannabis industry delivers fair wages, strong labor protections, and real opportunities for advancement. Thousands of cannabis workers, from cultivation to retail, have joined the union since the launch of its Cannabis Workers Rising campaign.
Giordano, who regularly meets with cannabis industry workers, credits the transparency and expertise at the heart of Local 360’s organizing effort for its continued success. He also pointed out UFCW’s commitment to building a successful industry with a thriving, diverse and skilled workforce, wherever cannabis is legalized.
“This vote is both a great sign for the movement and a clear demonstration of the success of our Cannabis Workers Rising campaign,” Giordano said.
Nationally, UFCW has established itself as a leader in cannabis labor organizing and is the official cannabis union recognized by the AFL-CIO. Representing tens of thousands of workers in dispensaries, grow operations, labs, delivery services and processing facilities across the U.S., UFCW works with employees and business owners to achieve the shared goal of a regulated cannabis industry that delivers family-sustaining jobs and promotes social equity.