Dispensary 33 becomes first worker-owned pot shop in Illinois

It’s been quite a month for midwest workers. Since March, Dispensary 33 became the first entirely worker-owned dispensary in Illinois, Governor J.B. Pritzker vetoed a long-anticipated warehouse worker protection bill, employees at Tony’s Fresh Market overwhelmingly voted against unionizing, and Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union reached a tentative contract deal.

Let’s get into it. 

Dispensary 33 becomes worker-owned

When Illinois legalized recreational marijuana in 2020, major corporations like Cresco Labs snatched up coveted social equity licenses while many independent Black entrepreneurs invested their savings with little to show for it.   

Today, Dispensary 33 is the last independent pot operator in Chicago and, as of Thursday, March 20, is fully worker-owned. The company, which is majority-minority run and has two stores, in Uptown and West Loop, plus four partnered Spark’d dispensaries elsewhere in Illinois, sold its business to a holding trust owned by its nearly 200 employees. 

Read more: Black-owned small businesses are still losing out on “social equity” cannabis dispensary licenses.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports the move is consistent with other ways Dispensary 33 has put power back in the hands of working people. The company prides itself on an “employee-first” approach that includes strong benefits and a priority on worker retention. Aleks Glass, the company’s director of product, started as an entry-level budtender seven years ago, and Venus Bikos, who oversees the company’s financials, started as a budtender six years ago.

Governor vetoes warehouse worker bill

In Springfield, Pritzker vetoed a bill that would’ve added new protections for people employed at large warehouses like Amazon. The decision prompted an unusual outcry from labor unions who typically support the governor’s progressive agenda.

Pritzker says he vetoed the measure because it was “hastily” passed “without engagement with relevant state agencies or my office,” according to the Chicago Tribune. The governor argued that the bill lacked mechanisms to hold violators accountable and did not define who would be afforded protections under the proposal. It would have required employers to be transparent about productivity quotas and ensure warehouse workers took required breaks. The Illinois General Assembly approved the measure in January, following reports that warehouse workers were often overburdened and overworked. 

In December, Amazon agreed to pay $145,000 to settle a complaint from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration that alleged Amazon’s demands for speediness from workers created dangerous working conditions for employees at ten of its facilities across the country. 

Teamsters Joint Council 25 president Thomas W. Stiede took to Twitter (now X) to share his dissatisfaction with Pritzker’s veto. “Having been a warehouse worker, I’m deeply familiar with the harsh and inhumane conditions in this industry, and I know firsthand why this bill is necessary,” Stiede wrote. “It’s unfortunate that our Governor doesn’t have those same experiences or sympathies.” 

Tony’s Fresh Market rejects union push 

Tony’s Fresh Market workers voted overwhelmingly against joining Local 881 of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) International Union on March 28. 

With 94 percent turnout, 1,115 employees voted against unionizing versus 605 in favor. UFCW Local 881 represents workers at Chicago-area Mariano’s and Jewel-Osco stores (excluding Jewel’s meat, fish, and deli departments). 

Tony’s was founded as a family-owned grocery store in 1979 and has expanded to 21 locations in Illinois, according to Block Club Chicago. 

Owners of the grocery store sold the chain to a private equity company in 2022, which subsequently took away benefits, like decreasing company holidays from six days to three, taking away vacation days, and offering a prohibitively expensive health-care plan that most of the workforce opted out of. 

Once UFCW began organizing the workforce, the company responded by restoring benefits and running a “typical” anti-union campaign, said UFCW organizer Markeisha Marshall. “They had the previous owners walking around the store to try to create a narrative that they are family,” Marshall said. 

A spokesperson for Tony’s Fresh Market told Block Club that the vote against union representation “reflects the strong relationships we’ve built with our employees and our ongoing commitment to fostering a workplace where they can thrive – with competitive wages, strong benefits packages, professional growth opportunities, and direct and open communication.”

CTU, CPS reach tentative deal

After a year at the bargaining table, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) reached a tentative contract deal on March 31. The agreement guarantees improved staffing and pay, smaller class sizes, and more.

According to the agreement, CPS will add 300 school counselors, 400 teaching assistants, 215 case managers, 30 bilingual support staff, and 68 centralized technology coordinators. The district also committed to hiring 90 librarians—doubling the number employed by CPS—and 24 fine arts teachers, who will teach at one of the 60 public schools without fine arts classes. In a win for academic freedom, workers secured the right of CPS educators to supplement their curriculum according to their own professional judgment. 

The tentative contract also limits class sizes for all grade levels, streamlines the performance review process, and ensures that new and veteran teachers receive consistent pay increases. Students who qualify for free and reduced lunch have access to field trips for free, and teachers won more release time to tailor their lessons for students, meet with parents, and discuss student needs with them. 

The Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act of 1995 limited the bargaining power of CTU by only allowing them to bargain about things directly relating to working conditions. But since the section about that was repealed in 2021, in time for this round of contract negotiations, it expanded the bargaining possibilities for Chicago teachers.

“I’m most proud of this agreement because of the wins and the improvements it will make on the [students],” says Latoyia Kimbrough, internal counsel for CTU, who was on the bargaining committee. “I have a child in the third grade in CPS, and I’m excited for the improvements that this makes for her experience.”