Former Dispensary Employees Say They Were Fired for Trying to Unionize

A dozen employees at a Springfield, Missouri, dispensary claim they were fired for meeting to discuss unionization, the Missouri Independent reports. Their employer, Greenlight Dispensary, contends that the employees were fired for consuming cannabis while on the job.

Madison Taylor, one of the fired employees who has picketed with other affected employees in front of their former workplace, told the Independent that two weeks ago she and a group of employees met to discuss forming a union and were fired days later.

“My hope, at this moment, is to just continue speaking up for my coworkers’ rights, the industry workers as a whole, and making sure that our community continues to be aware of the predatory practices of this business.” — Taylor to the Independent 

In a statement to the Independent, Greenlight said the company does “not comment on personnel matters, but we take compliance matters very seriously.” 

Taylor alleges that one of her colleagues who attended the meeting about a potential unionization effort notified management about the effort and they were all fired days later.

“If I would have known that this would have happened, I think I still would have pursued it because this is such an important issue, and bud tenders matter,” Taylor told the Independent. “Our workers matter.”