Union drive at Saskatoon cannabis retailer mired in legal proceedings

(Source: Google)

A union drive at a Saskatoon cannabis retailer has dragged on for nearly three years, with allegations of unfair labour practices now headed to the Court of King’s Bench.

Workers at the Saskatoon locations of Fire & Flower first applied to certify the United Food and Commercial Workers’ Union (UFCW) in Oct. 2022, with a vote scheduled the following month.

But the process quickly became mired in regulatory proceedings as the company entered bankruptcy protection and the two parties launched duelling complaints to the province’s labour relations board.

The process picked up again in May 2024 after Fire & Flower resolved its financial issues, and a second certification vote was held.

But since then, the ballots have remained sealed.

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UFCW is crying foul over “intimidating, coercive communications” from Fire & Flower’s corporate representative that it says unfairly portrayed the union as deceitful and untrustworthy, including directing staff to material from well-known anti-union organization LabourWatch.

In a unanimous decision last month, the Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board disagreed.

Board vice-chair Carol Kraft ruled the company was within its rights to sow doubt about the union through emails and flyers, and that any reasonable staff member would be capable of judging for themselves whether the information was truthful or in good faith.

The board ordered the certification vote unsealed and counted, but UFCW says it’s appealing the decision to the Court of King’s Bench, so the votes won’t be tallied until after the judge weighs in.

UFCW spokesperson Lucia Figueiredo alleges company has made use of institutions designed to protect workers’ rights to delay the process to the point where the employees who launched the union drive no longer work there, “because they had no representation.”

“Justice delayed is not justice at all,” she said.

Figueiredo accused Fire & Flower of taking a page from WalMart’s union-busting playbook, titled “A Manager’s Toolbox to Remaining Union Free.”

Like the approach outlined in WalMart’s guide to managers, Fire & Flower retail vice-president Eli Mail expressed concerns about the potential high cost of union dues, cautioned that a union could not make various guarantees to employees, and said that a union would stifle the culture of open communication between management and staff.

But Figueiredo says these union organizing drives tend to arise precisely because there is some gap or failure in communication between management and staff.

“And so that’s exactly how this organizing drive came about,” Figueiredo told CTV News.

“Concerns with occupational health and safety, concerns with whether or not they were getting the same sort of industry standard wages and benefits,” she said.

UFCW expects to find out when it can make it case before the court in the next few weeks. The results of the certification vote would not be released until after those proceedings.

Fire & Flower isn’t the only cannabis retailer to see a union drive in Saskatoon.

Employees of the Joint Cannabis Shops recently voted to certify and are now negotiating their first collective agreement alongside UFCW.