In a bold move, California cannabis delivery drivers and workers at Eaze/Stachs, represented statewide by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Locals 5, 135, 324, and 770, have rejected the company’s “last, best, and final” contract offer and have authorized their union, if necessary, to call for a strike.
Charges against Eaze/Stachs have been filed with the National Labor Relations Board that include: 1) the company’s unilateral change to the driver’s mileage reimbursement, and 2) not providing requested information that the company is legally required to provide.
The vote authorizes UFCW to potentially initiate an unprecedented strike among cannabis delivery workers in California just ahead of the 4/20 cannabis holiday. Eaze/Stachs’ recent offer did not meet the worker’s key objectives, which include raising the mileage reimbursement rate, increasing hourly wages, and ensuring a minimum number of hours. Despite the company’s refusal to give workers what they deserve, the union remains committed to negotiations in the hope of reaching a mutually beneficial agreement and avoiding a work stoppage.
“Eaze/Stachs’s billionaire financial backers have been getting richer off our labor while company management has cut hours, raised health insurance premiums, and eliminated security officers. Cannabis delivery depots are not the safest environments for drivers, who carry a lot of cash and product,” said Ron Swallow, a Van Nuys depot delivery driver and member of Local 770’s negotiating team. “Our proposals are perfectly reasonable; we just want to be able to pay our bills on time.”
“Stachs claims poverty to the union in negotiations. But they are claiming growth and prosperity in interviews seen by the public and shareholders,” says San Diego delivery driver and UFCW Local 135 union steward Kerry McCue. “No one wants to put the company out of business, we love our jobs. That is why we are fighting for fair compensation. California is the most expensive state in the country to live in. We are single parents and veterans and students, and everyday people just trying to work hard, and make enough to pay our bills.”
“After working through the pandemic and striving to keep this company working through the tough legal cannabis market, we know we deserve better.” Said Lay Lay Lee, a driver from Hometown Heart San Francisco, “The company’s decision to take away our mileage is theft, and they need to give us a better offer than their current $0.45 mile.”
“California’s cannabis industry has always led the nation, but Eaze/Stachs refuses to pay its delivery drivers and workers a fair living wage,” said Austin Williams, a delivery driver for Eaze/Stachs and a member of UFCW Local 324. “We are the reason for the company’s profits, and while they’re getting richer, we’re barely scraping by. UFCW members are ready and willing to do what it takes to ensure Eaze/Stachs agrees to a contract that respects our work and ensures we can put food on the table and pay our rent.”
The union’s negotiating team comprises more than a dozen Eaze/Stachs employees, representing over five hundred workers across eleven California delivery depots, six in Southern California and additional five in Northern California. Negotiations have been ongoing since August 2023, with the company presenting its “last, best and final” contract proposal on March 19, 2024.
UFCW Locals 5,135, 324, and 770 stand in solidarity with Eaze/Stachs workers as they strive for fair wages, better working conditions, and job security in the booming cannabis industry.
UFCW Local 135 represents workers at Eaze’s lone San Diego depot in Mission Valley.
