“Five Shangri-La staff will be reinstated, and the company will spend more than $145,000 on backpay, advance pay, interest, and compensation to compensate for direct or foreseeable financial damage to 10 employees.”
The Center Square by Joe Mueller
According to the National Labor Relations Board, a Missouri cannabis dispensary has settled a dispute over 15 allegations of unfair labor practices.
Point Management, doing businesses as Shangri-La Columbia, reached a settlement agreement with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 655 in St. Louis. The trial was to be held in late October. Early October, the company filed a motion to postpone or reschedule this action. The union was opposed.
The settlement was negotiated by Region 14 of the NLRB in St. Louis. Five Shangri-La workers will be reinstated, and the company must pay over $145,000 to compensate 10 employees for financial damage that is direct or foreseeable. The company terminated these employees after an attempt to organize a union in March. According to the NLRB, the agreement requires that the company pay damages for the interest on a loan with a high rate of interest taken out by a terminated worker.
The Regional Director for Region 14-St. Louis approved a settlement between Shangri-La a Columbia, Missouri, cannabis dispensary and UFCW local 655 which resolved 15 unfair labor practices charges covering dozens allegations. https://t.co/WpHwJMiDRD
— NLRB general counsel (@NLRBGC 6 November 2023
The company has agreed to bargain with the union, recognize it and rescind some provisions in its handbook and nondisclosure agreement. The company will also read out a remedial notification to all employees, send the notice via email to existing employees and post it on digital messaging platforms.
The company agreed to send managers and supervisors to NLRB-sponsored training sessions on the rights of employees under the National Labor Relations Act.
Shangri-La was founded by a Missouri family in 2019. This is the year Missouri voters approved Amendment 2, legalizing medical marijuana. The website of the company states that “members are experienced in retail compliance and business management as well as medicine and dentistry.”
Cemex, a regulation of the NLRB adopted in August, was a part of the settlement. Cemex Construction Materials Pacific, LLC was the case that inspired this new policy. It created a framework to determine when employers must bargain with unions even without an election. Employers must recognize the union and negotiate with it or petition for an election when a union asks to be recognized after a majority has chosen them as their representative. The NLRB can dismiss a petition if an employer uses unfair labor practices to invalidate an election.
Cemex required Shangri-La to reverse all the changes made to its business after a union petition was filed to represent employees in one of their locations.
In a announcement announcing this settlement, Andrea J. Wilkes said, “This settlement vindicates individual and collective employee rights under National Labor Relations Act.”
This article was originally published by The Center Square.
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The article Missouri Marijuana Retailer Settles Labor Dispute after Terminating Employees who Tried to Form Union first appeared on Marijuana Moment.
