One of California’s largest legal cannabis companies announced Monday it would fundamentally revamp its labor practices following a massive immigration attack at two company facilities last month. The attack led to the death of one worker and detention of more than 360 people, including 14 minors, according to government officials.
Glass House Brands announced it has “ends” relationship with two farm labor contractors who provided workers to the operation of cannabis greenhouses in Camarillo and Carpinteria. It also announced that it has made major changes to labor practices that exceed legal requirements.
These include hiring professionals to scrutinize workers’ documents and hiring consulting company guide post services to advise on best practices for determining employment eligibility. The company is led by Julie Myers Wood, former ice director of President George W. Bush.
The company also said it has signed a new “labor peace” agreement with Teamster’s International Brotherhood.
While Glass House officials declined to comment publicly beyond what is found in the press release, a source nearby the company said that the officials “want to make sure there is no situation we had on July 10th. This cannot happen again.”
That day, federal agents of masks and riot equipment struck Operation Ventura and Santa Barbara County Glass House at the state’s largest ice workplace in recent memory. Agents chased panicked workers through the vast green home, deploying tear gas and deadly projectiles to protesters and employees.
One worker, Jaime Alanis Garcia, died after falling from the roof of a greenhouse onto a three-storey building in an attempt to avoid capture. Others were bloodied from pieces of glass that had broken or hidden on rooftops and under leaves and plastic coverings for hours. More than 360 people, a mixture of workers, workers’ families, protesters and passersby, were eventually detained, including at least two American citizens, including US Army veterans.
Following the attack, Homeland Security Secretary Christie Noem said Glasshouse was targeted, saying, “We knew there were children who were trafficked, especially for weeks and weeks, that there were children who could be exploited and were involved in criminal activity.”
To date, neither Homeland Security nor the US Department of Justice have announced legal action in view of alleged trafficking and exploitation of juveniles.
In a press release, Glass House said only nine of its in-person employees have been detained. Everything else picked up is either an employee of the labour contractor or “has nothing to do with the company.”
Regarding the government’s claim that it discovered children working in cannabis, the company said: “The identity of the minors has not been revealed, but the company was able to determine that none of them were glass employees if those reports were true.” California Labor Law allows a 12-year-old child to work in farming, but the workers must be 21 to work in cannabis.
The attack was a destroyed glass house and its labor. Many workers were detained or vanished and feared returning. Those remaining were distraught with the company called to be sad counselors.
People have also shaking across the wider world of legal cannabis. Supported by wealthy investors, Glasshouse, presenting a sophisticated corporate image in the wild California world of cannabis, has long been known as “Walmart of Weeds.” Many California’s cannabis industry feared that the attack on Glasshouse was a signal that the federal ceasefire over cannabis, legal in California but not federal.
In the wake of the attack, United farm workers and other organisations warned non-citizen farm workers (farm workers with legal status) to avoid working in cannabis “as cannabis remains criminalised under federal law.”
Glass House said in its statement that the search warrant had been seeking “proof of possible immigration violations” at the company on the day of the attack. Sources nearby the company said officials have not had any further contact with the federal government since the attack.
Some farm workers advocates were not impressed with the announcement of our revamped labor practices.
Lucas Zucker, co-executive director of Central Coast Alliance United, said Glass House is using farm labor contractors to avoid liability for a sustainable economy, or for a cause.
“This presents a double standard in the legal system that allows businesses to benefit from the migrant workers they rely on, but when it’s inconvenient, they wipe their hands clean,” he said. He added: “Many farmers are still struggling to navigate this labor contractor’s mess and are not being paid for the work they did at Glasshouse.”
According to sources close to Glass House, company officials want to make sure that everyone who worked on the day of the attack receives all the wages they owed.
Company officials allowed all workers to be paid until 11:30pm on the day of the attack, as immigrants were unable to leave their shifts because they were blocking the door. Sources said farm labor contractors were paid and should have released wages to all workers.
“We don’t want everyone to be shortened,” the source said.
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