Delivery drivers and other workers at the US’s largest cannabis-delivery company are threatening to strike in what would likely be the biggest work stoppage to hit the cannabis industry.
Nearly 600 workers at 11 depot locations owned by Eaze, a cannabis-delivery company in southern and northern California, are threatening to strike over pay and conditions.
Eaze, founded in 2014 in San Francisco with millions of dollars in venture-backed funding, including from Snoop Dogg, has been characterized as the “Uber of weed”. The privately held company was valued at more than $700m in 2021.
Two of their biggest investors, Thomas Jermoluk and tech billionaire James Henry Clark, reportedly own a 35% share of the private company.
The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) has characterized the strike as “unprecedented” and said the strike vote was called after workers resoundingly rejected Eaze’s last and final union contract offer.
If the workers walk off the job, it would likely be the biggest work stoppage to hit the cannabis industry in the US, which has seen an uptick in union organizing and labor unrest as the pace of corporatization in the cannabis industry has accelerated.
Among the unresolved issues include a mileage rate pay cut implemented by Eaze after the workers unionized that the company has refused to address in contract negotiations.
Ron Swallow has worked as a delivery driver for Eaze in Los Angeles for around 2.5 years. He said pay and scheduling were good when he started working but that Eaze started unilaterally implementing cuts to work schedules and staffing at the depot where their deliveries are sourced from. He and his co-workers unionized with near unanimous support in March 2023 in response to the changes they were experiencing.
Then in the summer of 2023, Swallow said, the pay for drivers was significantly cut. Workers have filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board over the unilateral change made outside of bargaining.
“They cut our mileage rate. We’d been hired at 56 cents a mile and then they cut it to 42 cents,” said Swallow. “That cost drivers $300 to $700 a month on average, depending on how much you drive and that was pretty annoying. It was also the first time in my whole life I’ve ever come to a job and then been told I was going to get paid less.”
Due to the lack of progress in negotiations, the workers voted to authorize a strike if no progress is made before 20 April, one of the busiest sales days in the cannabis industry.
Swallow explained the costs he and his co-workers bear on the personal vehicles they use for work. Swallow said he ran over some debris on a highway during work and even with car insurance coverage he still had to pay thousands of dollars in repair costs for the damage and, because of the mileage cuts, he had to take out loans to cover it.
“They wanted to offer us 45 cents and we of course said no to that because it didn’t get us back up to where we started out. We’re very united,” said Swallow. “When you join with a union, you just become the union, the people working become that and that is one of the coolest things that I’ve seen, drivers come together just being supportive of each other and our staff as well, because our staff is underpaid, too.”
Lori Riehle, a delivery driver for Eaze at another depot in Los Angeles, criticized the claims from Eaze about the company not financially being able to pay workers more while claiming they are already paid enough.
“Eaze says they are the No 1 cannabis-delivery provider in the country and while that sounds great, I wonder why they don’t feel like we are important enough to support us in a way that we need to be supported so we can do that job successfully and safely,” said Riehle.”We are struggling to cover our expenses under this lower-tiered mileage.”
She claimed the concerns of workers about pay and expenses, and safety concerns over understaffing and a lack of security at depots where expensive cannabis products and money are held, have been ignored by the company.
“It can be a dangerous job and we just want to be not only compensated enough so we can take care of ourselves, our families and our vehicles. We’re worth more than what we’re getting,” she added. “We’re really proud of what we do, we’re proud of our jobs and I wish that the company would recognize that.”
In a statement by email, Cory Azzalino, the CEO of Eaze, denied the claims from their workers about low pay. He said the company is preparing to maintain operations in the event of a strike.
“In an industry being suffocated from high taxes and over-regulation, Eaze pays our drivers fair wages averaging over $25 per hour including tips, as well as benefits and consistent scheduling,” Azzalino wrote in an email. “Eaze’s driver tenure is over 2.4 years with limited turnover and a sizable applicant pool more than 2x our current labor force, which is evidence of a reasonable compensation package. Eaze has not earned a profit in its history, so this is not the case of old industry hoarding profits.”