Employees at Las Vegas marijuana retailer unionize

Employees at The Dispensary in Las Vegas have voted to join the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 711.

The retail location is the second owned by Miami-based multistate operator Ayr Wellness to unionize, according to Las Vegas TV station KVVU.

Labor organizers have been securing new contract agreements at MSO-owned stores nationwide for several years.

In September, employees of Dragonfly Wellness, a medical marijuana dispensary in Salt Lake City, voted to join the UFCW, becoming the first cannabis-sector employees in Utah to unionize, according to the Local 99.

That same month, International Brotherhood of Teamsters -organized staffers at several Chicago-area Green Thumb Industries stores settled on a contract after going out on strike for 13 days in April, the longest work stoppage so far in the U.S. marijuana industry.

The Teamsters is the other major U.S. union organizing workers in the legal cannabis industry.

Both unions are aggressively courting workers and demonstrating more militancy in dealings with management.

In July, workers at Zen Leaf outlets in Chicago and suburban Schaumburg reached a tentative contract agreement with parent company Verano Holdings, according to the Teamsters Local 777.

That same month in New Jersey, workers at the Cannabist store in Deptford voted unanimously to approve a contract negotiated by the UFCW Local 360.