The horror of Kenosha's police shooting of Jacob Blake has been gnawing at our hearts and innermost being this week. As his beloved sister said, many of us have stopped crying years ago: we are angry, we want justice. We continue the calls for justice in the case of Breonna Taylor and so many more.

The Cannabis industry in Illinois is tied to the history of our nation. As companies such as Cresco and GTI continue to interfere in their workers' union elections by shameful acts such as designating all growers as farm workers, we cannot but reflect on this irony. Indeed Cannabis was declared illegal by our government in the last century by using a public discourse that demonized and dehumanized Black and Brown people.

The farm worker movement led by Black and Brown people during the following decades was and continues to be an effort to be recognized and respected as human beings with full rights under natural and human law. However, the same institutions and special interest groups that benefited financially and politically from slavery did not want to see Cannabis/Hemp and free Black people affect their riches from cotton and forced labor.

So they found ways to continue to institutionalize forced labor and cheap labor in a myriad of ways, most especially: prisons and the systemic oppression of Black, Brown, and poor people. Hemp and cannabis were criminalized by criminalizing whom? Black and Brown people. And so cotton remained king.

The ties between the farm worker movement, the movement to free Cannabis as a medicinal and beneficial plant, and the movement to get rid of our country's incessant special interest in forced and cheap labor are indeed ties that were identified and called out by luminous souls such as that of Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, Angela Davis, and many, many more.

We cannot help but think of our country's obsession with a system that brings death to people and the earth both here and abroad. As Katie Loncke accurately describes it, we live "in a world beset by catastrophically confused governance" and in constant assault by "the 3 Poisons of greed, hatred, and delusion."**

We urge the Cannabis workers who are unionizing not to be discouraged by the weak and frustrated tactics of small-minded and small-hearted companies such as GTI and Cresco. If anyone touching the sacred plant is deemed to be a farm worker by these companies in order to interfere in the workers' rights to a union election... we encourage you to seek out union representation with a farm worker union such as the United Farm Workers of America (UFW).

Besides, many industries and companies have multiple unions representing their workers. Take for example the U.S. postal workers, whom we are in solidarity with at this time in history, they have at least 3 or 4 different unions.

We continue to ask for your support and solidarity. GTI fired one of our workers in mid-July and continues to try and crush our organizing with on the one hand unfair labor practices and retaliation; and on the other hand with promotions, positive affirmations, "free" food, and promises of transferring a terribly inept, abusive, and incapable Store Manager.

We have moved to file charges against GTI of unfair labor practices and retaliation with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

These charges are detailed as follows:

1.) In early April 2020, a significant group of workers at GTI's 3C Naperville location decided to execute a work stoppage in order to pressure GTI to commit to curbside-only delivery. When we wished to return to work once curbside was fully implemented, GTI retaliated against us and put up barriers for our return. These included a screening process, a five-day waiting period to be put on schedule, and threatening language stating that if we returned we have to return for good and not even think about staying home again. These same retaliatory conditions were not enforced for any other workers who decided to stay home during the COVID-19 pandemic before our work stoppage or since. 

Also, the week we returned, GTI gave a free half-ounce of Cannabis (Brownie Scout strain) to all the workers who had not been a part of the work stoppage. Shame on you GTI for this retaliation and unfair labor practice.

2.) In late April, once we had enough union authorization cards signed, we submitted our petition for a union election with the NLRB through the UFCW Local 881 union. The next day, April 24 2020, GTI corporate and management had a phone meeting with all 3C Naperville workers.

GTI's CEO and founder, Ben Kovler, stated at the beginning of the meeting that he was disappointed in us for wanting a union election. Ben claimed GTI had an effective open door policy, and he went on further to say that he had hoped when the time came for the union election that we would vote no. This was clearly a paternalistic and discouraging message to us workers. And it was also an unfair labor practice. Workers have the right to unionize without fear.

3.) After seeing our reaction to their phone meeting, GTI corporate and management realized us workers were united and determined. The following week, GTI began to take actions to interfere in and undermine our union election.

The company falsely designated Agents in Charge (AIC's) and Shift Supervisors as members of management. Management means workers can hire, fire, discipline, etc. None of which was the case at that time for AIC's and Shift Supervisors.

GTI did this to claim we did not have enough union authorization cards to file for a union election. As per federal law workers need over 50 percent of the non-management workforce to sign these cards in order to file for a petition for union election. We had 18 eligible workers and over 13 of them signed cards. GTI then hired over 10 new workers that week, claiming that we further did not have enough cards signed because of the addition of these new workers.

If AIC's and Shift Supervisors were supposedly part of management at that time, why didn't we have any part in the hiring of these 10 new workers? Clearly this was another unfair labor practice on the part of GTI to illegally interfere in our right to a union election.

4.) After our petition for a union election was withdrawn due to GTI's illegal interference, we the worker organizing committee regrouped and committed ourselves to continue to organize collectively inside our dispensary and outside as well.

We wrote letters to all of our legislators, continued to update this petition on Change.org, created a Facebook and Instagram page, wrote articles on Medium.com and Gozamos.com, etc. All to garner public, patient, and new worker support for our union drive.

After the police and the "ableist capitalist ecocidal white supremacist cisheteropatriarchy" killed in the most heinous of ways Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, companies such as GTI and Cresco began to post dishonest, patronizing, and tokenizing photos/posts claiming they were supportive of justice and equity both in our country and in the Cannabis industry.***

When us workers read these posts, we had to choke back our puke and felt it necessary to comment critically on these posts together with many other community members. We updated our Change.org post in June to discuss all of this.

On June 27 2020, our District Manager, Derrick Levy, informed us that GTI's new Corporate Social Responsibility Director, Michael Fields, was going to meet with us the following Monday, June 29 2020, to discuss our Change.org petition.

What was there to discuss? We had been very clear in our worker organizing demands and goals. We did not need to discuss our Change.org petition with anyone from GTI corporate or management. Clearly we had and continue to remain anonymous due to GTI's history of retaliation against workers who speak up for change so why would we publicly discuss anything that might tie us to our organizing?

This meeting with Michael Fields was a trap. We refused to engage. Clearly this was an unfair labor practice meant to identify members of the worker organizing committee and discourage us from further organizing. What we wanted then and now was for GTI to cease interfering in our rights as workers to unionize and improve our workplace.

5.) We the worker organizing committee continued to reach out to the new workers, the public, and our beloved patients. By this time it had already been July 2020. Patients, members of the community, and many of the new workers had been aware of our efforts as workers to unionize and improve our workplace. We had been and continue to receive letters of support and solidarity from many patients, members of our communities, and Cannabis workers from all over the country who were all too familiar with GTI.

On July 3 2020 there was an exposure of COVID-19 at our dispensary. We had hoped that GTI would do the things they had claim they would do if such a thing occurred: namely shut down the dispensary for two weeks to clean, sanitize, and quarantine safely. GTI instead chose to do none of the above. They remained fully open and did not inform the patients, did not send exposed workers home, and did not close down the store to effectively sanitize. We were scared and upset, many of us went home that day early out of fear. 

We updated our Change.org petition and informed the general public. The following week many patients had decided to stay clear of our dispensary and had sent us messages of thanks and support. GTI corporate and management had increasingly been discussing our Change.org petition and its effectiveness.

Management went further to discuss with us workers what they perceived to be our Change.org petition's negative effects on sales that week. This was another case of an unfair labor practice. A company cannot do or say anything to discourage or shed a negative light on worker efforts to improve their workplace.

6.) A week later, on July 17 2020, GTI corporate moved to retaliate and terminate one of our worker organizers. Our social media presence had become too much of a threat to GTI's orchestrated public image. We clearly understood GTI's actions as retaliation for our organizing and effectiveness. What a sad and insecure display on the part of GTI.

Even though this was another blow to our morale and worker organizing efforts, we continue the work that we started. Let us continue to reach out and reach in. We the workers have power and rights. Let us continue to transform the relationships that overwhelmingly, ineffectively, and destructively manifest themselves in our places of work, our spaces of governance, and our relationships as a whole. We indeed can make of this old world a new world.

Thank you all again for your wonderous support and love.

We will continue to keep you updated on our worker organizing. Please support the revamping of our state's Cannabis policies so that Black and Brown people can be first when it comes to being recipients of Cannabis licenses. At least at a 20:1 ration. Meaning, for every one license that currently exists, there ought to be 20 Black and Brown owned and operated Cannabis licenses. So we need about 400 Black and Brown owned licenses to be awarded as soon as possible. Social equity in Cannabis is a must. It is a part of the justice and reconciliation that our country needs in order to heal and move towards wholeness. For all.

And of course, we humbly ask that you continue to support our worker organizing. For if we are to be workers, let it be as unionized workers. Democracy in the workplace as experienced by a unionized workforce is one of the most effective ways to do away with our country's shameful and disgusting history of forced and cheap labor. Of human's inhumanity to humans and the destruction of our earth. 

We continue to believe that another world is possible. A world where everyone has a place. Where no one is left out. Where the life of one does not come at the expense of another's life or the earth's. We can make of this old world, a new world. The vision indeed still has its place.  

Thank you,

3C Naperville Workers in Unity for Safety for All

Please continue to boycott GTI's products and dispensaries! People power is the best power!!

**Katie Loncke: https://www.instagram.com/p/CESDHTvhnKE/?igshid=1armoly30wkw3

***Katie Loncke: https://www.instagram.com/p/CEPOasvhgkw/?igshid=zbc78t9vbqd2

Worker Organizing Email: gti.naperville@gmail.com

Worker Organizing Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GTINaperville/

Workers Organizing Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/3cnaperville_gti_workers