Authentic 231 is Michigan’s first union cannabis shop

MJ Biz Daily shares that workers at Manistee’s Authentic 231 are the first marijuana retail employees to unionize in Michigan according to the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW):

(parent company) Left Coast Holdings facilitated the unionization “as well as the development of a labor peace agreement to extend the upcoming bargaining agreement for all locations,” according to the release.

“We see our pro-union stance as a great benefit in a state like Michigan,” Left Coast CEO William McKenzie said in a statement.

Left Coast also operates cannabis cultivation and processing facilities in Michigan and has two other retail locations under development, according to the company’s website.

McKenzie told the Manistee News Advocate that unionization would help the company expand to another Michigan retail location.

“We’re actually working on a retail deal in Taylor, Michigan, downriver from Detroit, and the building that we’re purchasing is actually the building from the letter carriers union,” McKenzie told the newspaper. “One of the stipulations of them selling us the building was that it would have to be a union shop.”

You can read more at MJ Biz & for sure check out the Authentic 231 provisioning center if you’re ever in Manistee!