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East Hastings Vancouver Eggs Canna votes to unionize

Published on March 17, 2022 by David Wylie

Photo: Google Business

An Eggs Canna location in Vancouver is the first private cannabis store in the Lower Mainland to unionize.

Employees in the East Hastings shop have voted to join UFCW 1518’s BC Budtenders Union.

UFCW 1518’s secretary-treasurer Patrick Johnson says it’s proof workers can be “the loudest voice in the room” and guide the cannabis industry.

“To put it into perspective, recreational cannabis was only legalized in 2018,” he says. “Profiteers obviously jumped to stake their claim and capitalize on this new market. But they weren’t the only ones to move quick. From the moment the first shops started opening in Victoria, frontline staff were looking for ways to improve their working conditions and to have a say in how the industry was run.”

  • RELATED: Another Victoria cannabis store joins budtender union

“Fast forward four years and 70% of the for-profit cannabis shops in the capital city have unionized. Today, we’re excited to get behind the Budtenders at Eggs Canna and start to organize around Vancouver. Workers have been at the forefront of this industry from its inception, shapeshifting cannabis to benefit their communities, and their influence is only growing. These folks are unstoppable,” he adds.

The union represents growers at the Potanicals greenhouse in Peachland, but Eggs Canna marks the progressive union’s first organizing drive at a mainland dispensary.

UFCW 1518 represents

More than 26,000 workers in retail, grocery, food production, home care, and more industries.

“At every point along the cannabis supply chain, workers deserve a voice,” he says. “Everyone that works with cannabis plays an integral role in its production process. From its growth to its distribution, sale, delivery, and eventually consumption, pot must serve everyday people. Workers can ensure it does by unionizing.”