Missouri cannabis retailer fires 12 after union organizing meeting

A dozen former cannabis retail workers in Missouri are claiming they were fired in retaliation for union organizing activities. 

The labor dispute at Greenlight Dispensary in Springfield comes amid a decisive union vote – and on the heels of some other major organizing victories – at another retailer owned by the same company, according to the Missouri Independent. 

Employees at Greenlight’s Joplin location voted 18-2 to join United Food and Commercial Workers Local 2 on Sept. 18, union officials said in a press release. 

The day before, Greenlight’s Springfield location terminated 12 workers, the newspaper reported.  

Both locations are tied to Good Day Farm, according to the news outlet.  

Separate lawsuits accuse Good Day Farm of illegally controlling more Missouri cannabis retailers than state law permits. 

The fired Springfield employees allege the terminations were retaliation for attending an off-site union organizing meeting, the Independent reported. 

Greenlight management accused the workers of using marijuana at work. 

Both locations came under management of “an entity affiliated with Good Day Farm” in March 2025, a Greenlight representative said in a statement to the Independent. 

Joplin workers began organizing after that transition brought what UFCW Local 2 described as “top-down changes,” the news outlet reported 

The Springfield incident began after a co-worker informed management about the organizing meeting, Madison Taylor, one of the Springfield workers, told the Independent. 

Greenlight declined to comment on the firings. 

“We do not comment on personnel matters, but we take compliance matters very seriously,” a company representative said in a statement to the Independent. 

Joplin employees will now negotiate their first contract.  

Their priorities include more consistent scheduling, equitable tip distribution and better pay. 

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What you will get: 

Missouri legalized recreational marijuana in 2023, fueling a surge in cannabis jobs and, soon after, a push to unionize. 

Several groups of workers endured years-long legal battles and company pushback before seeing victories this year. 

In St. Louis, Proper Brands post-harvest workers, who process and manufacture cannabis products, voted 25-21 on July 1 to unionize. 

That followed a key decision from the National Labor Relations Board. 

In May, the board rejected a St. Louis cannabis company’s argument that post-harvest employees are agricultural workers, a classification that would exempt them from federal law protecting most private-sector workers’ right to organize without retaliation. 

Since then: