Two roads for cannabis processing workers under broader legalization
| Low road | High road |
|---|---|
| Lack of unionization leads to stagnant or declining wages, fewer benefits, and lower job quality. | Unions help workers secure fair compensation and higher job quality. LPAs encourage strong union density, allowing unionized segment to set norms and standards for the industry. |
| Outsourcing to staffing firms grows, further undermining worker bargaining power, diminishing wages, and complicating enforcement of wage, hour, and safety regulations. | Vocational training and apprenticeship programs for skilled processing roles offer middle-class opportunity to workers without college degrees, and formerly incarcerated individuals. |
| Unions contracts standardize equitable pay practices and include diversity-promoting hiring provisions that help erase racial- and gender-based pay and employment gaps. | |
| Cannabis processing workers in the high-road scenario could make, on average, an estimated $8,690 more in annual wages than under the low-road scenario. | |