“A Scrappy Chicago Organization”

March 16, 2020 8:14 AM

“ Last week, The Daily Beast published a report on “Protech Local 33”—a supposed union that claims to represent workers in California’s growing cannabis industry. According to The Daily Beast’s reporting, signs point toward Protech acting as a “company” or (in labor slang) “yellow” union: something banned under both international and national labor laws. .... But our investigation, conducted through extensive research through Department of Labor records, court records, IRS records, the Chicago Tribune newspaper archive, and interviews with Chicago labor activists shows that Protech is much more than a company union—and connects back to a long, troubling history of corruption in some segments of organized labor...” ‘I heard you grow marijuana’: Inside the organization behind Protech Local 33 (Strike Wave)
posted by The Whelk (6 comments total)

TL;DR: It’s a mob front.
posted by Leeway at 10:17 AM on March 16, 2020 [8 favorites]

You can't blame me for having disease on the mind, but I wonder if there's an epidemiological angle to why this kind of thing shows up coming out of Chicago.
posted by rhizome at 11:06 AM on March 16, 2020

Great post. I mean, look at how far we've come, that organized crime royalty and the Daily Beast lavish attention on the Reefer Madness Farmer's Union. Where there's power, there's corruption, so apparently there's some power.
posted by dmh at 12:49 PM on March 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

Tangential to the post, and maybe it's just me, but it seems like the Industrial Workers of the World would be a good fit with the nascent marijuana industry.
posted by talking leaf at 2:58 PM on March 16, 2020

the Production Workers had been operating in San Francisco and in California “for over 20 years.”
[...]
The fact that none of ProTech’s members appear in any labor filings reviewed by San Francisco regulators can be explained by the fact that the union was only chartered a year ago, in January 2019, and none of that data has been reported yet, he added.

So have they been active for 20 years or were they chartered less than a year ago? I mean I guess both could be true but that is pretty strange.

Also I can't think of a single union that keeps places where they represent workers secret. I mean Crips what be the point? Imagine working at Foo Widgets for 10 years and then finding out there was a union representing the Foo workers.
posted by Mitheral at 8:07 PM on March 16, 2020

You can't blame me for having disease on the mind, but I wonder if there's an epidemiological angle to why this kind of thing shows up coming out of Chicago.

Because Chicago is still a seriously mobbed up town. Check out the Chicago Outfit group on facebook. Actually convicted mobsters reminisce on there and they have an huge number of fans who pine for the good old days.

There was a recent fatal stabbing outside of a mob bar (Richards) in Chicago that made the news and despite practically being caught with the weapon in hand the cops let him walk (he was re-arrested and charged a few days later after it became a big news story ). The place is openly known for illegal gambling and open defiance of the smoking ban yet doesn't get shut down (meanwhile legit businesses need to hire 'advisors' to tell them who and how to pay to help them get past inspections )

O'Hare contracting is tied to all kinds of convicted mob bosses. Many private security firms in Chicago have joint cop/mob ownership connections. There are mob connections all over the place. People openly call Cicero a mob run town.

The mob is very much alive in Chicagoland and that might explain why there is more tourist stuff about the Chicago Mob in Vegas than in there is in Chicago.
posted by srboisvert at 4:36 AM on March 17, 2020 [3 favorites]