This year's harvest season coincides with a national labor shortage for hourly workers, and temporary pot-trimming gigs might not be attractive enough as restaurant and retail owners increase their wages, according to Viridian Staffing CEO Kara Bradford. She's operated cannabis staffing services since 2013, and says that she's never before seen a job market like this one in the pot industry.
In their comments on our Westword Facebook post, readers have plenty of explanations for the shortage.
Says Jackson:
Funny that an industry that exploits its employees, treats them like shit, and gaslights them is having trouble finding good workers.Responds Monalisa:
Every industry is low on workers, except the hospitals firing people who aren't vaccinated.Comments Christopher:
Maybe make the background checks less stringent. Right now it's like trying to work for the fucking feds.Notes Michelle:
When it pays more to work at McDonald's, it's easy to see why folks don't want to get badged.Adds Tae:
Get rid of the badge to work. It's like asking liquor stores to get badged. For little pay. Who wants to trim for $15 an hour?Explains Bree:
As someone who has worked in this industry for over seven years, there are several reasons why they are low on workers. Harvesters are treated as the low of the low. Most of them are temps and barely paid above minimum wage. Still have to pay $100 to get badged every two years. Low pay, I mean LOW. When fast food places offer the same pay as a dispensary, but the fast food offers an actual stable schedule (more than any dispensary I've worked at) and benefits on top of that? No brainer. This doesn't even mention all the labor violations I have seen and experienced firsthand, nor all the harassment and bigotry. Homophobia. And the other drugs...David counters:
Cannabis has given me a whole other level of hatred for our capitalist system.
Listen, the pay isn’t the best but I started out 2.5 years ago making $13.50 an hour. Now I’m a supervisor with no degrees, making decent money. Just show up on time with a good attitude and you should be good. Multiple times I get ghosted on interviews. They simply don’t show up. Then there’s the people we have who just simply show up late pretty much every day or call out at least two to three times a month. Some once a week. Work ethic just fucking sucks.And James concludes:
They've priced out all the cheap labor from all major metro areas! Well, the word is out! The industry as a whole had been spoiled for the last seven to ten years, making money hand over fist! Yes, taxed to fuck and back! But, yet, there's still plenty of room.What do you think of dispensary jobs? Have you worked at one? Post a comment or share your thoughts at [email protected].
And it's not millions, it's billions!! So yeah! Put that in your pipes and smoke it! It's time to let some if not all of that "trickle down" and bestow those of us who get up every fucking day and handle this industry.
I HAVE SPOKEN!
