27 July 31st -Aug 6th, 2025 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | | CANNABIS | Welcome Back? Curaleaf ordered to rehire Phoenix worker it fired for union activity. BY TJ L’HEUREUX N ick Fredrickson, a former budtender at Cutaleaf’s midtown Phoenix location, stood alongside two dozen unionized cannabis workers to picket one of the company’s stores on April 20, 2024. The next day, the company fired him. Within days, the outspoken union leader filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board alleging wrongful firing and retaliation for organizing. Last week, the government agency announced it has sided with Fredrickson. A judge ordered the company to reinstate him as a budtender — with back pay. Mara-Louise Anzalone, an administra- tive law judge at the NLRB, released a deci- sion on July 22 requiring Curaleaf to rehire Fredrickson, who now works for the labor advocacy organization Arizona Works Together. However, Anzalone found claims that Curaleaf retaliated against two other fired workers, Zakeya Crawford and Luis Isreal Tinajero-Torres, lacked merit. The company “unlawfully disciplined and discharged” Fredrickson, the judge wrote. She ordered the company to “offer him reinstatement to his former position, or if that job no longer exists, to a substan- tially equivalent position, without preju- dice to his seniority or any other rights or privileges previously enjoyed, and to make him whole for any loss of earnings and other benefits he may have suffered because of discrimination against him.” Anzalone also ordered that the company must pay Fredrickson for the past year and three months since his firing. Curaleaf has 14 days to comply with the ruling. Fredrickson told Phoenix New Times in a written statement that he’s “ecstatic” about the judge’s ruling. “Working at a dispensary was a dream come true, so when I was let go from my job at Midtown, it was devastating,” he wrote. “I’m so excited at the chance to go back to work and hope to have a long career in the industry I love. No one should lose their job for speaking up and demanding justice in the workplace.” The judge also found that Curaleaf’s management improperly tried to discourage workers from participating in the union. Anzalone ordered the company to cease and desist from the following, all of which she found had occurred: • Threatening employees with loss of pay and benefits if they chose the union as their bargaining representative • Ordering employees not to discuss the company’s response to a workplace rodent infestation with coworkers and customers • Ordering employees not to wear union insignia in the workplace • Telling employees that they do not have a union representative • Disciplining or discharging employees for supporting the union or any other labor organization Jordon Rahmil, vice president of public relations at Curaleaf, declined to comment or say whether the company plans to appeal the decision. Administrative law judge rulings can be appealed to the full NLRB. Union organizing in Arizona’s mari- juana industry has taken off during the past few years. In June 2024, workers at two Zen Leaf locations nabbed the first union contract in the industry. In May, workers at Trulieve’s famously smelly Magnolia production facility in Phoenix near Interstate 10 approved a three-year union contract, becoming the first cannabis culti- vators in state history to get one. Fredrickson was known and recognized for his leadership in cannabis union work when he was fired, helping to unionize his workplace between April 2022 and February 2023. Before and since his dismissal, Fredrickson worked behind the scenes to help other workers around the Valley unionize, playing a role in some of cannabis workers’ union successes. He doesn’t plan to stop. “I am steadfast in trying to improve labor across the board,” he told New Times. “Now that I have seen just how dirty this fight can get, somebody needs to step up and help clean it up. And I’m willing to do it.” Nick Fredrickson was fired by Curaleaf one day after picketing one of its stores. (Katya Schwenk)
