About 40 medical marijuana industry employees joined with the Teamsters Local 70 in California earlier this month, ratifying a contract after their employer recognized their union without interference. These employees are different from those of medical marijuana dispensaries who joined with UFCW Local 5. The newest Teamster members are those who tend to plants at a medical marijuana management company.

SEIU’s California State Council – arguably the leaders of the state’s most powerful union – announced the union’s support of California’s Proposition 19 for marijuana legalization. Not only does SEIU’s endorsement bring much needed political mainstream legitimacy, but as the Times notes, it also brings SEIU’s campaign infrastructure to Prop 19′s campaign.

The Northern California council of the ILWU, otherwise known as the Longshoremen, announced its support for Prop 19, California’s marijuana legalization initiative. The 25,000-member council cited the extraordinary “waste” of money and lives in the war on marijuana, including marijuana prohibition’s disproportionate impact “on the backs of workers, poor people, and people of color.”

From my first day in Louisiana to report on the oil disaster in May, I heard complaints from residents and workers about BP’s restrictive hiring practices. While in general it was, and still is, difficult to get work from BP, one theme was common: many people were frustrated by BP’s drug tests. I heard several unconfirmed reports that BP had fired, in separate incidents, half of a group of fishermen, and half a group of beach recovery workers, for testing positive for marijuana.

Now Mother Jones’ Mac McClelland, in her excellent report last week from Louisiana, hints at a potentially disturbing consequence of BP’s prohibition of marijuana: alcohol abuse and domestic violence.

Employees in California’s huge marijuana industry are starting to join unions. One hundred employees in Oakland pot shops – including Oaksterdam University and Blue Sky Coffee Shop, the establishments of California cannabis initiative lead Richard Lee – will announce tomorrow they will join the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). The workers all signed cards and will have their union recognized under majority sign-up.