Support for "NJ Biz Beat" with Raven Santana provided by NJMEP, a partner to New Jersey's manufacturing industry, focused on productivity, performance, and strategic development.

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>> This is "NJ Business Beat with Raven Santana."

Raven: I am Raven Santana.

Thank you for joining me.

New Jersey's marijuana market is expanding as we get closer to year three, from new dispensaries to grow operations and even consumption lounges bringing in big bucks for the state.

In the second quarter of 2023 the state saw $160 million in recreational cannabis sales brought -- bringing in $9.5 million in tax revenue.

The industry is contribute into the job market creating more than 7000 jobs in its first 1.5 years.

Cannabis companies are still looking for new hires as the market grows.

This week I visited a cannabis job fair at Union College in Union County and spoke to the chairman of the Board of commissioners in the county about why they hosted the event and the need for skilled cannabis workers.

We discuss what it means to have two of New Jersey's dispensaries in Union County.

Tell me a little bit about what that does for the economy.

And, also, why it is so important that job fairs like the one you are holding today are critical.

Sergio: This is something brand-new to the state.

When it comes to employers and employees they are basically on the ground level working with one of the great things that will be taking place.

Today is the first job fair for the cannabis industry with over 200 people registered that are Union County residents.

There are multiple job opportunities and everybody wants more information about what is taking place and employment opportunities.

Raven: How did you put out the word?

Sergio: We talked to local organizations, local colleges come as a university in Union County.

We have employers that are active in community engagement.

That is what we did with flyers, social media posts, videos going out.

We wanted to make sure that anybody that wanted to hear about this had that opportunity.

Raven: When we sick about job opportunities, what sort of opportunities?

The cannabis industry is not just about touching plans.

There are so many different opportunities when it comes to that.

How many jobs do you think we are talking about?

Sergio: Thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands.

Over 30 here in New Jersey and in Union County alone, we talk to mayors and local municipal officials and they say there are locations coming to their municipality.

That'll be a factor in pushing economic revenue for New Jersey in Union County.

Raven: Let's talk about opportunities there are especially for those listening.

Sergio: There is a variety of jobs.

Sales, security, cannabis manufacturing plant.

There will be individuals working behind the scenes.

The financial aspect of it all.

Like you were saying before it is not just about touching the plants.

It's everything that goes into the business.

It is a type of implement opportunity that will be possible for the residents.

The job fair is not just about getting a job.

It is about getting information about the cannabis industry.

It just goes to show the curiosity people have.

You do not need to have formal education in the cannabis industry to get a job.

One of the great things we are doing too is putting you in connection with employers and working with the union County Commissioner board, Union County College and development company to get a variety of tools you may need in the future to expand the knowledge in the industry.

Raven: Tell me about who is here today.

Sergio: We have urge year.

We have bazooka.

All of the employers are from Union County.

They are ready to start up or already have a location here.

They want to hire local residents also.

That is one of the great things about New Jersey, the way we are doing it too.

Manufacturing in the industry, everything is New Jersey grown here.

Everybody -- everything has to be purchased through New Jersey manufacturers.

One other great things is we are making sure New Jersey residents is -- are tied into the day-to-day operations of the industry.

Raven: Why did you find this location key to holding the job fair?

Sergio: We have a great partner in the Union County College workforce development Board making sure the location is optimal when you have transportation.

You have two parking garages.

Union College is on the forefront of working with us in workforce training for individuals across the county.

We knew this was an optimal site and a large enough venue to host the job fair.

Raven: are you hoping to recruit students?

Sergio: This will provide opportunity for many students at Union College in getting into a fast-growing industry and providing job opportunities.

We are saying that it is not always about job opportunities you have seen in the past.

It is new and upcoming job opportunities.

That is what Union County College does.

They try to make sure they are looking towards tomorrow seeing what is available.

Raven: I asked because I know there have been universities now offering cannabis studies.

When you are looking ahead to that, there are naturally going to be students who want to then take that degree and that training into a cannabis industry.

So, I mean, are you hoping that is something that is developed here as well?

Sergio: That is already under the works.

We are making sure there is opportunity that will continue to expand.

Our County Commissioner board is working alongside our County College making sure we get employment and education for students.

Raven: We know there has been mixed reaction about the cannabis industry.

We know legislation has already come through.

It's happening.

There was a point when there was a stall with people getting licenses.

It seems like they got over that hurdle.

For those on the fence, those that may not be as progressive with how the future is going, what you have to say to them?

Sergio: Cannabis is here to stay in New Jersey and New Jersey legislatures are working hard to make sure everybody is happy as much as can be.

Not everybody will be happy, but the regulations put in place will be an economic factor that might benefit the residents of New Jersey in making sure we provide job opportunities, and tax revenue and making sure the cannabis industry professionals are giving back to the community.

Raven: Sergio, thank you so much.

Sergio: Thank you.

Raven: There were all types of companies at the job fair from dispensaries to distributors and cultivators.

The companies are looking for workers of all skill types.

But in some cases, prior cannabis experience is crucial.

I spoke to one cultivator about what he is looking for in a future employee.

>> Proactive individuals with a good work ethic passionate about the plan.

Raven: Do they need a background in cannabis?

>> That will always help.

My business is a little more technical.

Basically I am running a pharmaceutical grade manufacturing facility, a lab.

So I need GMP compliant practices.

Good manufacturing practices.

We need to have individuals who know how to follow the rules, follow specific instructions and standard operating procedures and can flourish in that environment.

It is a heavily regulated industry.

Raven: After a rocky start seeing major corporations take the lead, small business owners are now getting their chance to enter the cannabis market.

There are 65 total dispensaries in New Jersey, double the amount we saw open in the first year.

53 of the dispensaries serve recreational customers, showing the growing demand for legal cannabis sales.

This week I visited one owner who is close to opening up shop.

At night jar is set to open in Bloomfield and I spoke to the chief operations officer about why they chose cannabis and the difficult journey to open up her business.

>> -- >> We are currently at night jar.

Raven: It will not look like this in a few weeks.

>> It will look much better.

Raven: Tell me about what it will look like and how you came up with night jar.

>> The store will look more like a lounge.

This was intentional for us.

We wanted people to feel comfortable here.

It is darker, moody her.

We have dark tile and dark ceilings and the lighting is nice and we want people to feel comfortable coming in exploring cannabis.

The name came about because one of our cofounders, wrote Jana -- Rosanna, her family is from Puerto Rico and the Nightjar is a subtropical bird native to many places and Puerto Rico is one of those places.

We thought that sounded like such a neat name.

Raven: I love it.

>> And it is also something you might keep your cannabis in.

Raven: Tell me about the experience you want people to have when they come here for the first time.

We know there is a stigma.

>> What we hope people do is feel really comfortable walking in here.

That they do not feel like there is an overwhelming amount of surveillance on them or that they are being tracked.

And, that there are fairly people here to greet them and help them.

Some folks know a lot about cannabis.

A lot of folks know very little.

That is really important.

To make sure you are meeting people where they are at and giving them the information and tools they need to make good decisions about what products will work well for them.

Raven: Tell me why you decided to be located here.

>> We are in a redevelopment zone here and that was important to us.

It is a great way to make an impact in the community and bring a lot of economic development to the area.

Bloomfield is also a very supportive town.

So, the mayor and the Bloomfield Township Council have welcomed cannabis business is here with open arms.

That was really important to us.

You should go where you are wanted.

We were wanted in Bloomfield.

That is a huge part of it.

Bloomfield is of community on the rise.

Lots of folks are interested in being in Bloomfield.

We wanted to be here too.

Raven: We know you have received a lot of support.

Really, life-changing support with the grant.

You are a recipient of the $250,000 joint venture grant.

Tell me more about that.

Where do you want that money to go?

>> Those funds are absolutely life-changing, like you said.

If the average cost to open a dispensary is about $1 million, the funding we received is about 25% of that cost, right?

That's huge.

There is no other state out there with legal cannabis that is offering this type of support to businesses.

What that signals to us is the state of New Jersey really cares about diversely owned businesses, supporting businesses like Nightjar, a family-owned business, women owned business, a minority owned business.

With that money we hope to hire people faster.

We were going to have to wait a little longer.

We are actually in the process of hiring folks right now and that is huge.

Raven: We just saw an interview going on, right?

>> Just walked into an interview.

It is definitely going towards people first.

Professional services.

We can market the business in ways we could not afford to do before and get the word out about what we are trying to do here.

Raven: What type of physicians are you looking for?

>> We are hiring now for frontline positions, Bud tenders, what we call the folks that work behind the counter as well as in the backpacking orders.

Those people interact with customers the most.

They are a critical component to our operation here.

So we are hiring Bud tenders, safety and security Associates as well, folks checking IDs at the door, help keeping a safe, making sure the environment is conducive to a safe work environment.

Really important positions there as well.

We start all frontline employees at $20 an hour.

We are really proud to be able to do that.

I think it is critically important in attracting the right talent and giving people a meaningful work experience.

When you feel good about what you are doing and you feel valued you are more likely to do a great job.

Raven: Off-camera we were talking about the space.

I feel like from beginning to end you have been very intentional about everything.

The first thing I noticed was how big it was.

And, it is not just the space that viewers will see here.

It is a space that viewers cannot see behind us.

Tell me a little bit about why that was so important to you.

>> I come from the cannabis industry in Massachusetts.

That is where I got started.

I am originally from New Jersey.

Through the process of learning we found out there was never enough employee space.

In order to ensure a great employee experience people have to have adequate space to perform their jobs well.

So, it wasn't really intentional for us to create a big back of house space where people can receive training and have private conversations.

They can interact with coworkers.

We really did try to make it so there was as much space as we could reasonably have in the back of the house.

In order to do that.

We also very intentionally, put a big vault in this store.

Because, we hope with all the new operators coming online, from cultivation and manufacturing, that we will have plenty of options for independent businesses coming up right now and we will be able to carry their products.

We want Nightjar to be a place where independent businesses can be showcased and featured here.

And where we have enough space to ensure we can carry products.

Raven: By the end of the year we will see a new business on the block.

Fran, thank you so much.

>> Thank you for having me.

I appreciate you coming here.

Raven: One of the biggest challenges for cannabis business owners in New Jersey is banking and managing their finances.

Right now banks that service marijuana businesses face punishment from Federal regulators.

A U.S. Senate committee recently advanced the safe banking actions that would allow businesses in states where cannabis is legal to work with major banking institutions without consequences.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer plans to bring the legislation to the floor for a full vote soon.

Earlier we mentioned the growth of the marijuana labor market with thousands of jobs created.

In that market is experiencing a wave of unionization.

New Jersey cannabis laws require companies to negotiate in good faith if workers want to unionize.

Cureleaf has seen union efforts at five locations and dispensaries at cultivation sites.

The efforts are run by union food and commercial workers local 360 and I spoke to the director of organizing huge or dawn of about efforts to unionize the industry.

There is an assumption cannabis companies are progressive and will protect workers.

That's not always the case.

That is why you have said that unionizing is critical.

Tell me about that.

Hugh: There is the assumption that because cannabis comes with so much conversation about how we enforce the criminality of it, how it affects communities of color and communities that are impoverished.

We think the people that will get involved will be a progressive in their mindset.

That is not the case.

We are seeing a lot of companies funded by venture capitalism.

SPACS.

With that comes a lot of big business Wall Street mindsets.

I think what we have been seeing over the past 5-10 years is a lot of rich folks playing Vegas with the industry.

Unfortunately, the real losers will be in this case the workers.

Raven: How many marijuana workers have you help unionize?

Hugh: The UFCW in New Jersey has helped over 1000 workers already.

This is both medical and adult use.

But, it has been a lot of work.

When you hear about industries, you know, there are tens of thousands.

We always have to remember this is a brand-new industry.

At one point there was only a few hundred workers in the state.

Now there are a couple thousand.

We are going to keep fighting for those that are coming down the pipe too.

It is not just organize the ones that have been here.

We are thinking of the future.

Raven: When we talk about protection I think people forget there are hazards when it comes to the industry.

Can you talk about why that is important too when using about unions?

As this industry continues to grow and develop.

Hugh: Because cannabis is not legalized on the Federal level, when we think about organizations like OSHA, that would be there to protect workers, it has been a little bit of a push on the labor side to make sure that these organizations are still involved.

Although, the Federal Government may be behind the times as far as putting regulations and rules to protect workers for cannabis, the states have done a great job doing so.

I can say that in New Jersey when we think about workers rights, we have to think about protections.

The governor and the Senate and the assembly in New Jersey is excellent.

When we think about cultivation.

We think workers are just hanging out.

Consuming cannabis and chilling.

That support assumption.

-- a poor assumption.

Just like a warehouse or a factory, UFCW represents what these workers go through.

They go through the same types of hours and you have to be working at this time to make sure that this quantity is produced.

They use chemicals, especially in the labs.

When you are looking at the dummies --gummies and oils, that's real chemistry.

There are gases used.

That can cause issues if you do not have well-trained, well-prepared employees that are on the ground that day.

Raven: You have also mentioned how what you don't want to happen is for the industry to turn into, let's say, Amazon.

Or Walmart.

Where there are workers, years later, that are still fighting for unions.

So, tell me a little bit about your concern moving forward if more people in the cannabis industry are not able to unionize.

Hugh: Yes.

It is a huge concern.

If we look at the states that have made workers rights a paramount part of the legislation, there are states that are legalizing cannabis both medical antidote to use that do not have workers' rights -- medical and adult use that do not have workers' rights in mind.

We will see what we saw with other industries.

Look at textiles.

Those jobs went south to avoid labor laws and protection for workers.

Look down south also and there are no agriculture laws that protect workers to organize on the state level.

Because, the Federal Government does not protect workers to organize that work in the agriculture sector.

You see a lot of company start to move cultivation sites down south just to avoid workers' rights.

Lower wages, no benefits.

You know, these things come into play.

If we are going to talk about equity and justice let's start fixing the labor law so no matter where the companies go in the country workers' rights will always be number one and paramount.

Raven: What is the biggest pushback?

Hugh: We get a lot of pushback because in the beginning of the industry when it was medical, there were a lot of patients buying and creating small companies.

Because, they were small business.

The biggest pushback has been when adult use has come into play.

Now you have these other sectors now investing in cannabis.

Look at alcohol.

Constellation plan -- Constellation Brands is investing in Canada and in American companies too.

You have tobacco companies, Philip Morris and so forth.

We will see all of these other bad trades come in to stifle workers' rights that were not there before.

That will be a problem.

But our hope is we can have these conversations with these companies day one and say this is what is expected and we hope to have a positive relationship going forward.

Raven: Thank you for joining me.

Hugh: Thank you.

Raven: Before we leave you, a look at the top business headlines from the week.

As more and more companies embrace artificial intelligence, state leaders want to keep the technology under control.

This week Governor Murphy established an artificial intelligence task force with the goal of analyzing the impact of AI on society.

The group will track the states use of AI and make sure that it is fair, accessible, and beneficial to all those in New Jersey.

The governor task several state agencies which exploit the use of AI including for job creation, training, and research projects at our universities.

Governor Murphy announced few other AI initiatives including evaluating AI use by state departments and agencies and using AI to improve how the state delivers its government services.

A Federal judge rules Starbucks must hand over documents detailing how money was spent on its response to unionization efforts in Buffalo.

The first in the company's history.

We reported on a number of New Jersey Starbucks stores and their efforts to unionize and negotiate.

Now, the company must answer to the U.S. Labor Department that is investigating alleged unionbusting tactics by the coffee giant.

The decision comes a little more than a week after the national labor relations Board found the company without pay raises from workers trying to unionize.

Prices for consumer goods and services rose more than expected last month according to the latest inflation report from the Federal government.

The latest consumer price index shows prices increased by .4% last month and 3.7% compared to last year.

The price of gas saw the steepest increase along with a small increase for housing.

Used cars saw the largest drop in cost.

Food price inflation is at the lowest rate in more than two years.

Federal Reserve officials do not expect inflation to return to acceptable levels for another three years.

A new report finds Hispanic inclusion in corporate America is decreasing.

The Hispanic Association on corporate responsibility released its annual corporate inclusion index.

It found while Hispanics make up 18% of the workforce they are overwhelmingly underrepresented in see sweet rolls.

Just 7% of board seats were held by Latinos and 2% were held by Latinas.

50% of the company surveyed had no Hispanic Board of Directors.

The report traces the issue to a start of a career finding only 13% of interns were Hispanic.

Check your bank account today because money from the anchor property tax relief program may have been automatically deposited.

Governor Murphy's office said direct deposit payments started landing this weekend paper checks will go out in the mail next week.

The tax breaks can be worth as much as $1750 for eligible homeowners and $700 for qualifying renters.

The payments use income tax information from 2020 and will not be taxed by the state.

The money is going out earlier than expected.

The Murphy administration initially said distribution would start November 1, one week before the statewide legislative elections.

Now those that have applied and qualified will receive the benefit by November 1.

In all, more than 3 million New Jersey residents are slated to get the direct property tax relief.

That does it for us this week.

Subscribe to the NJ Spotlight news YouTube channel to get alerted when we post new episodes and clips.

Next week, we look at the business of health care including how urgent care centers impact traditional doctor's offices and the innovation happening in hospitals.

Thank you for watching.

We will see you next weekend.

>> Support for NJ business speed with Raven Santana provided by NJ M.V.P.

a partner to New Jersey's manufacturing industry focused on productivity, performance, and strategic development.

More on NJmap.org.

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