About 30 people carried signs, chanted slogans like "People, not pre-rolls" and tried to divert customers while outside Greenlight Dispensary, 218 N. National Ave., on Sept. 18, protesting the firing of 11 of the dispensary's 23 employees.
The fired employees were told their termination was because they were seen "popping (weed) gummies" during work on dispensary property. However, the employees that the Springfield News-Leader spoke to denied doing that and said they believed they were fired for a different reason: attempting to unionize.
“We do not comment on personnel matters but we take compliance matters very seriously,” said a representative of Greenlight MO in an emailed statement on Sept. 18.
According to former employee Emily Dickson,
employees of the Springfield store met on Monday, Sept. 14 to discuss signing union authorization cards. By Thursday, Sept. 17, five employees who took the lead on organizing the store, including Dickson and Elvin Kinchelo, had been fired. Some were fired over the phone, while others came into work and were made to wait before being fired, Kinchelo said.
"We don't know if they'll be paid for those two hours they were at work," Kinchelo said, adding that the employees were immediately locked out of the time card system upon being fired.
The National Labor Relations Act protects private employee's rights to organize a union and prohibits retaliation for protected union activity. However, in the past, Kinchelo said, Greenlight Dispensary had tried to tell employees that National Labor Relations Act and other federal protections did not apply to them because cannabis isn't federally legal.
The employees had been trying to unionize for better pay, promised raises and other protections. They're not the only ones who have tried to do so.
On Sept. 18, the majority of employees at the Greenlight Dispensary in Joplin voted to authorize a union with the United Food and Commercial Workers. According to the UFCW, there are 290 dispensaries and 36 grow facilities nationwide currently organized under their union, including Key Cannabis in Springfield.
The UFCW did not respond to request for comment before publication, though a union representative was at the protest to support employees.
While a steady stream of cars continued through the drive-thru at the Springfield dispensary, at least one customer stopped by the protesters and ended up heading to another dispensary in town.
One protester, Logan Spangler, said he used to be a regular customer.
"I've been shopping (here) since the beginning. I was thinking about (going somewhere else) with the owners being who they are, with that controversy with the lawsuits. I spend a lot of money on it, like over 500 bucks a month, easy. And that's going somewhere else now," Spangler said, adding that after the lawsuits came up, he'd been shopping at the store purely because of the employees.
Greenlight Dispensary has previously been in the news for a lawsuit that said it was part of a "cartel" and violated the state's anti-trust laws. The class-action lawsuit, brought by two Missouri-licensed cannabis cultivators and manufacturers, alleged that Good Day Farm recruited other cannabis license holders, including Greenlight Dispensaries, who then agreed to turn over control of their businesses to Good Day Farm.
A spokesperson for Good Day Farm denied the claims.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Springfield dispensary workers say they were fired for unionizing
