Unions See Opportunity in NJ’s New Cannabis Law
New Jersey launched its recreational marijuana industry this year under a new law that has explicitly pro-labor provisions, and organized labor sees the arrangement as beneficial to unions as well as the growing industry.
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Andrew Herman, an attorney at Blank Rome LLP who represents employers, said the provision requiring companies to enter into or at least negotiate over a CBA poses particular issues depending on how the state determines what constitutes a good faith effort to reach a deal. The NLRA requires employers to bargain in good faith with a union, but the 200-day deadline in the New Jersey law may provide "additional pressure" on an employer that would conflict with the federal law, Herman said.
So far businesses have not been willing to mount legal challenges to the provisions, satisfied instead to take a cut of the massive growing industry, Suflas said. But Herman pointed out that a business that loses its license because state regulators conclude it did not comply with one of the labor provisions could very well make a push.
"The National Labor Relations Act gives employees the right to form and join a union and engage in organizing activities, but it also protects a right to refrain from those activities," Herman said. "When you have laws that impose additional requirements on the employer, that sometimes could be applied inconsistently with the National Labor Relations Act."
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"Unions See Opportunity in NJ’s New Cannabis Law," by Tim Ryan was published in Law360 Employment Authority on July 13, 2022.