An Oregon union has spent more than $2 million trying to get an initiative on the November ballot that would make it easier for marijuana retail and processor employees to organize.

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 555 – one of the biggest unions in Oregon with tens of thousands of members – went the ballot route this year after failing to get a similar measure passed through the Oregon Legislature in 2023, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.

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Michael Selvaggio, political director for the Local 555, estimated the union spent $2.4 million on the signature-collection campaign.

The UFCW is optimistic the initiative will make the ballot after submitting more than 163,000 signatures to the Oregon secretary of state’s office by

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Florida hemp businesses are lining up to oppose an adult-use marijuana legalization initiative that will appear on the state’s November ballot, according to campaign finance forms and MJBizDaily interviews.

They’re aggrieved by what they say is a monopoly play for a future adult-use market deliberately engineered by marijuana multistate operators.

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And with more than 10,000 hemp businesses registered in the state – compared with a few dozen large marijuana companies – hemp operators opposed to Amendment 3 believe they have enough money and votes to defeat the recreational marijuana measure largely funded by Tallahassee-based MSO Trulieve Cannabis.

In response, advocates for regulated marijuana operators say the hemp firms are being used as pawns in a game played by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who will

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U.S. Sen. JD Vance, the Ohio Republican whom Donald Trump picked as his running mate for the November presidential election, is no supporter of federal marijuana reform.

Nor did the 39-year-old former investment banker and “Hillbilly Elegy” author support adult-use marijuana legalization in Ohio last year.

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But Vance doesn’t appear to be much of a cannabis-culture warrior, either, preferring instead to spend his political capital elsewhere.

No ‘friend’ of marijuana industry

“Is Vance a friend of the industry? Absolutely not,” Steve Schain, a Philadelphia-based attorney who specializes in cannabis banking and taxation issues, told MJBizDaily by phone on Tuesday.

“His first and only concern is fortifying and furthering his federal role.

“That being said, like most classic libertarians, he doesn’t want to disturb

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