Sun Extractions Workers in Hamilton Join UFCW Local 360

Workers at Sun Extractions, a cannabis products operation in Hamilton, voted on April 15 to join United Food and Commercial Workers Local 360. The union says 12 employees are now part of the fold, the latest organizing win in a state that’s been racking them up at a pace that surprises even veteran labor observers.

Local 360’s Cannabis Workers Rising campaign has been the engine behind most of this. The campaign’s goal isn’t subtle: set enforceable labor standards across New Jersey’s legal marijuana market before the industry gets big enough to resist them. So far, it’s working.

Hugh Giordano has been doing this work for 26 years. The Local 360 director of organizing said the Mercer County shop’s vote is bigger than one facility’s headcount. “New Jersey’s cannabis industry is stronger today, thanks to this vote by Sun Extractions workers,” Giordano said. “Sustainable success for businesses, employees, and communities starts with fair treatment, strong standards and shared commitments. That’s how jobs in the cannabis industry become long-term careers, and it’s the future these employees are working towards.”

He told reporters that young workers in cannabis aren’t driven by ideology so much as basic math. They’re aging off parents’ health insurance and don’t have a plan B. “The younger generation has strong feelings for worker rights,” he said.

That pressure is hitting a state already inclined to hear it. New Jersey carried an estimated 612,000 union members in 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s 14.7 percent of the workforce, ranking ninth among all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Nationally, membership hasn’t held up nearly as well.

UFCW Local 152 has been right alongside Local 360 in building that base. In December 2025, Local 360 announced election wins at two NJ Leaf dispensary locations, North Brunswick and Freehold. Before that, in July 2025, Local 152 members at the Columbia Care cultivation facility in Vineland ratified their first contract. Years of organizing, one signed agreement.

The wins keep stacking up.

New Jersey didn’t stop at election certifications. In January 2026, the state enacted labor protections written specifically for cannabis cultivation workers, people who’d been legally categorized as agricultural workers and therefore cut off from standard collective bargaining rights. That classification traced back to the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, which exempted farmworkers from federal labor protections. The exemption survived for decades because no one with enough power had reason to challenge it. New Jersey’s 2026 law closed it.

The context matters. New Jersey’s cannabis market opened for recreational sales in 2022, and union organizers moved fast. Most industries take years before labor campaigns gain real traction. Cannabis in this state didn’t wait. Local 360 and Local 152 were at the table early, and the numbers show it.

Giordano’s 26-year career has run through supermarkets, warehouses, and now dispensaries. He’s said the cannabis sector is different from anything he’s organized before, partly because of worker age and partly because the industry itself is still figuring out what it wants to be. That uncertainty, he’s argued, is exactly when workers need a contract locked in.

The April 15 vote at Sun Extractions adds 12 people to that growing total. Small number. Real consequence.