{"id":9727,"date":"2026-05-05T05:55:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T10:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/05\/st-louis-marijuana-facility-faces-product-recall-and-loss-in-labor-conflict-2\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T05:55:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T10:55:17","slug":"st-louis-marijuana-facility-faces-product-recall-and-loss-in-labor-conflict-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/05\/st-louis-marijuana-facility-faces-product-recall-and-loss-in-labor-conflict-2\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Louis marijuana facility faces product recall and loss in labor conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Marilyn Gleason, the director of human resources for BeLeaf Medical marijuana company, signs a sealed envelope containing 11 BeLeaf employees’ votes that the company contested as not being eligible to unionize on Feb. 6, 2024 (Rebecca Rivas\/Missouri Independent).<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A St. Louis-based marijuana company\u2019s failed attempt to block its workers from unionizing has set a national precedent in favor of workers who process cannabis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Owners of BeLeaf Medical\u2019s Sinse cultivation facility in St. Louis have been arguing since 2023 that their \u201cpost-harvest workers\u201d don\u2019t have the right to unionize because they\u2019re agricultural workers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Agricultural workers who grow food \u2014 or weed \u2013 aren\u2019t protected by federal law that ensures employees have the right to unionize without fear of retaliation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The National Labor Relations Board, which is the highest administrative body on labor conflicts and sets national policy on unionizing, <\/span>shot down the company\u2019s argument <\/span><\/a>on April 23.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The board\u2019s decision came the same day Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a <\/span>bill<\/span><\/a> that, in part, ensures all cannabis workers \u2013 including those who grow marijuana \u2013 have the right to unionize.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe agree with the Regional [NLRB] Director, for the reasons provided in her decision, that none of the workers employed in the classifications at issue here are agricultural laborers under the secondary definition of agriculture,\u201d the national board members stated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been more than two years since the employees at the Sinse cultivation facility in South St. Louis <\/span>held an election<\/span><\/a> to unionize.<\/span><\/p>\n

The majority of the ballots \u2014 11 of the 16 \u2014 have remained closed because BeLeaf challenged them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Sinse employees whose union votes BeLeaf questioned largely made pre-rolls, input data on computers and transformed dried marijuana into finished products, jobs which \u201cgenerally are not performed by ordinary farm employees,\u201d the national board stated.<\/span><\/p>\n

The decision comes two years after a regional NLRB director arrived at the same conclusion. The ballots will now be opened, but it\u2019s unclear when, said <\/span>Sean Shannon, lead organizer with United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 655<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBeLeaf has chosen to spend thousands and thousands of dollars to delay this process, while claiming to be a good part of our community,\u201d Shannon said<\/span>. \u201c<\/span>At this point, let\u2019s hurry up and bargain a first contract because I think people in that facility have more than earned it, whether they\u2019ve been around since the vote or not.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Kevin Riggs<\/span><\/a>, co-founder, partner and CEO of BeLeaf Medical, declined to comment on the board\u2019s decision.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week, the Division of Cannabis Regulation handed BeLeaf another blow by issuing a recall of its pre-packed weed from the same Sinse facility, after finding a mold during a routine lab test.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The recalled product is <\/span>Sinse Prepackaged Flower<\/span><\/a>, 14 grams, Permanent Marker, product number M00001463153, with source tag 1A40C0300000A29000061341.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regarding the recall, Riggs said, \u201cConsumer safety is our priority. We\u2019re working with DCR on this recall and will have no further comment at this time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Covered by the Act\u2019<\/h4>\n
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Post-harvest employees at BeLeaf Medical\u2019s Sinse facility await union election results on Feb. 6, 2024 at the St. Louis Public Library Barr branch (Rebecca Rivas\/Missouri Independent).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is the first time the national board has weighed in on the issue of post-harvest cannabis workers, though similar decisions have been issued by regional board directors in other states.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>St. Louis labor attorney George Suggs<\/span> said t<\/span>he national board\u2019s decision is limited to a case-by-case basis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEmployers are going to read this case and say, \u2018How can I <\/span>change the job duties <\/span><\/a>around so that I can make them more agricultural?\u201d Suggs said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

BeLeaf can still refuse to abide by the ruling, Suggs said, which would eventually land the case in front of an appellate court.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Given that the company has paid four Armstrong Teasdale attorneys to work on the case, Suggs said the owners have shown a monetary commitment to resisting the process of bargaining.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll that happens is you\u2019re required to sit down and bargain in good faith \u2013 that doesn\u2019t mean you have to pay another nickel,\u201d Suggs said. \u201cIf you pay one of those lawyers to sit in on negotiations for you, let\u2019s say, for 20 sessions, you couldn\u2019t possibly have spent as much money as you did on this case \u2013 and will spend.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Regardless of the board outcome, Sinse workers will be covered on Nov. 12 when a new Missouri law<\/a> goes into effect.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During a late-night debate<\/a> on a <\/span>bill<\/span> to ban intoxicating hemp products, Democratic state Sen. Stephen Webber of Columbia proposed an amendment to ensure marijuana cultivation workers are protected under the <\/span>National Labor Relations Act<\/span><\/a> of 1935.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the National Labor Relations Act as long as it\u2019s existed, it has not applied to agricultural workers,\u201d Webber said during a Senate floor debate last month, \u201cbut states are free to expand that coverage if they so choose.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Webber\u2019s amendment makes workers in cannabis-related businesses in a climate-controlled indoor cultivation and processing facility covered under the federal act.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about an industry that employs people,\u201d he said, \u201cand I think this is a good amendment for people.\u201d<\/span>
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Regional decision<\/h4>\n
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Mitch Meyers, co-founder and partner at BeLeaf Medical marijuana company, speaks at the National Cannabis Industry Association summit meeting on March 29, 2024. (Photo by Rebecca Rivas\/The Missouri Independent)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The national board agreed with the decision the regional director Andrea Wilkes \u2013 who oversees a swath of six states in the Midwest \u2014 <\/span>issued two years ago<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wilkes found that none of these post-harvest employees are \u201cengaged in primary agricultural activities.\u201d They work separately from the cultivation and harvest departments, she wrote, and don\u2019t overlap in duties.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, BeLeaf says the employees work with their hands, and they are still working with \u201craw flower.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

BeLeaf operates three cannabis cultivation sites, two manufacturing facilities and twelve Swade dispensaries, according to the division\u2019s website. The Sinse facility Cherokee Street location is the largest of their cultivation facilities in Missouri, where 29 cultivation employees care for the plants and five people harvest the marijuana plants and hang them to dry, according to NLRB case documents.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In her decision, Wilkes said there are 13 post-harvest employees who take down the dried plants and begin the de-stemming process. Some weigh the product and input that information into state\u2019s tracking system Metrc.<\/span><\/p>\n

After de-stemming and separating, the marijuana is packaged or processed into pre-rolled joints. The facility produces anywhere from 900 to 1,200 pre-rolls a day.<\/span><\/p>\n

She compared the Sinse post-harvest employees\u2019 work to that of employees in a tobacco processing plant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRemoving the veins from tobacco leaves and fermenting the leaves has been held to be outside the definition of agriculture,\u201d under federal labor law, she wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wilkes\u2019 decision followed a <\/span>similar ruling<\/span><\/a> by another regional NLRB director in a case regarding some New Jersey post-harvest workers.<\/span><\/p>\n

A decision from the national board sets a legal precedent, which is what BeLeaf was hoping for, the company said in its request to the NLRB.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe legal cannabis cultivation industry is relatively new in the United States, and it is different from all previously analyzed agricultural industries,\u201d the company argues.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAccordingly, there is no officially reported board precedent,\u201d the filing continued, \u201cand no reported judicial decisions to help establish where the line between agricultural and non-agricultural activities may be drawn in a particular situation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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