Green Thumb Industries employees at five NJ locations, including Hackettstown, file petition to decertify UFCW union
UFCW union officials bypassed secret ballot election to gain power over Green Thumb Industries employees, but workers now back decertification vote
NEW JERSEY – Employees of Green Thumb Industries, a company that manufactures and distributes a portfolio of branded cannabis products, have initiated a petition seeking to remove the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 360 union from representing them.
Michael Potter, a Lead Warehouse Technician, filed the decertification petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on behalf of his coworkers at five locations across New Jersey, including a facility in Hackettstown, which is the main distribution center for Green Thumb Industries.
Potter is receiving free legal assistance from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation in this effort. The NLRB, the federal agency responsible for labor law enforcement, oversees the voting process to certify and decertify unions.
Having collected sufficient employee signatures, Potter’s petition triggers a decertification vote under NLRB rules. This move aims to challenge the “card check” unionization campaigns that UFCW officials implemented among the workforce.
The “card check” process allows union officials to bypass secret ballot elections, traditionally seen as the most secure method for gauging employee support for unionization. During these drives, union officials often solicit signatures in person, which can lead to coercive tactics.
New Jersey’s lack of a Right to Work law allows union officials to demand dues or fees from employees just to maintain their jobs. Additionally, union officials enjoy monopoly bargaining privileges, representing all workers in a unionized workplace—even those who oppose the union.
If successful in the decertification election, about 275 workers could free themselves from UFCW union control.
“Many of us believe the UFCW does not advance our interests and that we would be better off without the union in our workplace,” Potter said. “We simply seek a secret ballot election that was denied to us when the union was installed, so we can determine what the majority of Green Thumb employees want.”
The petition comes just days before a new NLRB rule, effective September 30, would make it more challenging for workers to challenge union installations via card check. Under the previous rules, employees had a 45-day window to petition for a secret ballot decertification vote, provided proper notice was posted.
The new rule, however, introduces a “contract bar,” which can block decertification for up to three years when a union contract is in place, as is currently the case at Green Thumb.
Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation, emphasized that if Potter had filed his petition just a week later, the workers would have been denied their right to vote out the union officials. He criticized the Biden-Harris Administration for its efforts to support union leaders at the expense of workers’ rights.
“American workers don’t deserve to be stripped of this freedom, and those who are prevented from voting out unwanted union bosses due to this cynical rule change should not hesitate to contact the Foundation to explore their legal options,” Mix said.
