Teamsters rally in ULP strike at cannabis plant

BARRY, ILL. - The temperature July 2 was 90 degrees at noon, and hundreds of striking Teamsters outside Ascend’s sprawling cannabis plant on Revolution Road a mile and a half east of Barry, Illinois’ business district rallied to show that the heat is on and time’s running out.

“We had 28 bargaining sessions, and then we went to Ascend’s headquarters on Times Square in New York, and we found out they’d hired Littler, Mendelson, the notorious union-busting law firm,” said Kyle Bollinger, Vice President of  Teamsters Local 916, based in Springfield. “Negotiations stopped. They refuse to bargain.”

Locally, retaliation has arisen, too, ranging from firing a member of the bargaining team to terminating the safety director for doing his job, Bollinger said.

“No one from the [Barry] company will sit down with us anymore,” he said.

Workers went on an Unfair Labor Practice strike June 25.

Due to a quarter mile of parked cars outside locked gates at the plant where workers’ choice for representation was voluntarily accepted by the company in the spring of 2025, picketing was congested. However, live music and speakers from the union and the plant made the event seem like a preliminary to Independence Day celebrations.

“Morale couldn’t be better,” said JP Fyans, president of Local 916. “It’s phenomenal. We’re [also] getting support from the Illinois AFL-CIO, Central Labor Councils, Teamsters Locals from all over the Midwest, and help from the International.”

Strike-benefit checks being distributed helped the mood, too.

“We’re handing out a quarter million dollars [in strike benefits],” Fyans said. “Some were down to their last gallon of gas.”

The 350 Ascend workers make about $19 an hour, but have to pay a majority of their health-insurance premiums, Fyans continued.

“How can people survive like that?” he added. “It’s unconscionable anywhere. In the richest country in the world, how can that happen?

Ascend handles cultivation, manufacturing and retail outlets, with about 50 stores in Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania, plus wholesale to other dispensaries. The corporation’s first-quarter report showed net revenues of $116.9 million.

Jesse Case, the International’s Food Processing Division Director, based in Cedar Rapids, came down along with other IBT Locals and representatives from Teamsters Joint Council 25 for Chicago, Illinois and Northwest Indiana.

“We’re fighting a business model in Illinois – and all over the country – that sets up with low wages and no benefits – on the backs of workers,” Case said.

“After cannabis was legalized, it became like the brewing industry after Prohibition was repealed,” he continued. “Most workers were low wage then, too. Today, the Teamsters represent about 90% of brewery-industry workers, tens of thousands of workers with good pay and decant standards.

“We want to help build middle-class jobs,” Case added.