Last Friday, July 3rd, at our clinic 3C in Naperville, us workers were exposed to COVID-19. We were scared and did not know what to do, looking at GTI management for guidance. We asked GTI to do the right thing and close the dispensary in order to:

A.) Protect the safety and health of our staff, patients, families, and greater community.

B.) Safely quarantine our staff.

C.) Deep clean and sanitize the dispensary.

Instead, GTI management informed us that they would sanitize the building and remain open. There was no attempt do the right thing on the part of GTI corporate or management. The dispensary was not closed for deep cleaning, exposed workers were not sent home to quarantine, and patients were not notified of the situation.

Safety, respect, and justice have been the heart of our worker organizing. From COVID-19 to the systemic genocide against Black and Brown communities, we see these two issues deeply connected. It has also been our experience as workers that GTI corporate and management has not been concerned about either. As we just witnessed this week, GTI refuses to take our health and safety seriously. This includes our patients and greater community.

Regarding GTI's shameful and disgusting performance of social equity and justice, we received an email from GTI corporate on June 24th inviting GTI staff to a town hall discussion about social justice and corporate social responsibility. GTI hired Michael Fields, a Black man, to tokenize and use for the cover-up of GTI's incessant thirst for money and control of the Illinois cannabis industry. GTI also invited another Black man, Wes Moore, to tokenize and use during their town hall. Here is the GTI corporate email along with our worker response:

***GTI corporate email:

Date: Wed, Jun 24, 2020

"Good afternoon, Green Thumb Team—

We will be recording a special town hall discussion on the important topics of social justice and corporate social responsibility featuring our founder and CEO Ben Kovler, our new social corporate responsibility director Michael Fields, and Green Thumb board director Wes Moore, a best-selling author, veteran, and CEO of Robin Hood, New York City's largest poverty-fighting organization. Wes has been an outspoken advocate for social justice for years and his latest book 'Five Days' was just released this week. You can learn more about Wes here.

Please send questions related to social justice and corporate social responsibility you'd like addressed to townhall@gtigrows.com by Monday, June 29 at noon CST.  We will share a link to the discussion for all to view in early July.

Also, please know this is one of many ways we will continue the dialogue around these crucial issues. Thank you for your questions.

With appreciation,

Julie Knudson, Chief People Officer"

***GTI workers' response:

Date: Thu, Jul 2, 2020

"Good morning Ben, Michael, and Derrick,

We have received your invitation to participate in a live town hall meeting regarding GTI's commitment to social equity, justice, and social responsibility. Since these issues go beyond our four walls at 3C Naperville, we would like to extend this invitation to the community organizations who represent those most affected by systemic racism, genocide, inequity, and injustice. The War on Drugs and the police whom too often operate as death squads and forces of occupation are an extension of the centuries of genocide committed against the Black citizens of the United States.

As workers in the Cannabis industry and residents of various communities throughout the Chicago region, we have reflected on what steps GTI can take in order to repair the harm done thus far by the cannabis industry in Illinois, which GTI is an integral part of, and what steps GTI can also take in terms of social equity, justice, and social responsibility. We recommend the following:

A.) Invite these community organizations to participate in the live town hall and make a considerable recurring donation to each of them:

1. Assata's Daughters 2. Global Girls 3. Brave Space Alliance 4. Moms United Against Violence and Incarceration (MUAVI) 5. Chicago Community Bond Fund 6. Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP) 7. Equity and Transformation (E.A.T.) 8. Sista Afya 9. Noname Book Club 10.#SaveTheHamptonHouse/The Black Panther Party Cubs 11. Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) 12. Traphouse Chicago 13. Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO) 14. GoodKids MadCity (GKMC) 15. Injustice Watch 16. Kuumba Lynx 17. Footprint Farms 18. The #LetUsBreathe Collective 19. A Long Walk Home 20. Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project (P+NAP) 21. Trinity United Church of Christ 22. Chicago Coalition for the Homeless 23. Circles and Ciphers 24. New Era Chicago 25. Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation (S.O.U.L.) 26. Chicago Torture Justice Center (CTJC) 27. Westside Justice Center 28. Liberation Library/Semicolon Bookstore 29. The Triibe 30. The Firehouse Community Arts Center of Chicago 31. Men & Women in Prison Ministries (MWIPM) 32. Cannabis Equity Illinois Coalition 33. Chicago Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights 34. Organized Communities Against Deportation 35. Chicago NORML

B.) Work with the Cannabis Equity Illinois Coalition and the Chicago Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights to draft and sign a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) for each of the dispensaries GTI owns and operates in Illinois. A Community Benefits Agreement is "a legally enforceable agreement designed to ensure that the economic success of the dispensary is linked with economic benefits for the communities most disproportionately harmed by the War on Drugs."

C.) Work with Workers United and us as 3C Naperville workers to draft and sign a Labor Peace Agreement that fulfills the requirements of Illinois legislation (H.B.1438).

D.) Make a concrete commitment to donate funds, lobbyists, lawyers, and other resources to community organizations that have been demanding social equity and justice in the Cannabis industry: E.A.T., Chicago NORML, Cannabis Equity Illinois Coalition, Chicago Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights, The Triibe, etc. Commit to following their lead and offering resources to the realization of their demands, such as but not limited to:

a. The transparent, fully accountable, community-controlled, and just distribution of all Cannabis tax revenue to the communities most disproportionately harmed by the War on Drugs, otherwise known as disproportionately impacted areas (DIAs). The current administration and distribution of Cannabis tax revenue needs to focus abundantly more on social equity, justice, transparency, and accountability.

b. The decriminalization and legalization of Cannabis entirely, which includes expunging Cannabis cases in which trafficking and carrying weapons also occurred, and that allows for the home grow of the Cannabis plant by all Illinois residents.

c. The lobbying for legislation that creates Cannabis policy in Illinois that fundamentally equals social equity policy. This means lobbying for the passing of legislation that transforms the Cannabis industry from a limited market that is primarily wealthy white male-owned to a vast social equity market that makes reparations for the decades of the War on Drugs, the centuries of genocide, and that is primarily Black and Brown owned. As first steps, GTI can lobby and demand that the 75 social equity licenses delayed in May and again in June be awarded immediately. Furthermore, GTI can lobby and demand that the social equity applicant program drop designation #3, which "directly permits people who do not belong to affected communities to apply, as long as they sign up members of those communities as minority stakeholders."

d. The signing of labor contracts with your workers in order to considerably improve their work conditions, compensate them justly, and greatly improve their standard of living. It has been our experience that anything less amounts to at best relationships of dependency, inequity, tension, disrespect, and constant frustration between workers and GTI corporate/managers.

All of these recommendations come from an understanding that social equity, justice, and social responsibility cannot be led by GTI or made on GTI's terms. It is only through working with and following the lead of the communities most affected by the War on Drugs and the ongoing genocide that true social equity, justice, and social responsibility becomes a reality. The same applies with GTI workers. Only by working with us to establish agreements and contracts will the workplace also improve as a result of establishing right relationships among free and equal human beings. 

We look forward to your response.

3C Naperville Workers in Unity for Safety for All"

Thank you all for listening and supporting us. We will continue to update you regarding our worker organizing as well as revealing the truth about GTI. As we continue to witness, GTI continues to focus on looting our communities in order to maximize profits; tokenizing its Black workers; heinously limiting the cannabis markets in every state they operate in; and disregarding their workers' safety and well-being.

We urge you to boycott all GTI brands when you can, we understand of course if you need to purchase a certain medicine and cannot find a replacement. Here is a list of GTI brands: Rythm, Incredibles, Beboe, Dr. Solomon's, and The Feel Collection. We also encourage you to boycott all GTI dispensaries as well. We fully understand when there is no alternative dispensary accessible to you for your medical needs. A list of GTI dispensary locations: 3C, Rise, and Essence locations.

Please email or call GTI corporate and management to let them know you support our demands. We also ask you to join us and inform patients that it would be best to avoid 3C Naperville for at least two weeks.

Thank You!

3C Naperville Workers in Unity for Safety for All

Worker Organizing Email: gti.naperville@gmail.com

 

GTI Corporate and Management Contacts:

Brendan Blume (Market President-IL) Phone: 773-706-7517 Email:bblume@gtigrows.com

Derrick Levy (District Manager) Phone: 303-726-6982 Email:dlevy@gtigrows.com

Gregory Zeman (Store Manager-3C Naperville) Phone: 630-460-9311 Email:gzeman@gtigrows.com