The Worker’s View: Herbal Wellness Center employees strike for change 

Following historically long cannabis industry labor strikes in Ann Arbor, Mich. and York, Pa., workers at the Columbus dispensary Herbal Wellness Center are setting a new record.

Union members at the East Main Street shop are now almost two months into a strike that started on Sept. 26, surpassing the successful 45-day picket staged by workers at Green Thumb Industries in York and making it the new longest cannabis workers strike in U.S. history. 

The affected union workers are represented by Teamsters Local 413. Negotiations for a union contract have been ongoing since last year, beginning when the dispensary was locally owned and named Strawberry Fields, prior to its acquisition by Vext Science, Inc. Vext reported a 41 percent year-over-year jump in revenue in its third-quarter financial results, and its operating cash flow year-to-date reached $8.5 million, drastically up from the $700,000 reported in Q3 2024. Vext’s stock price also increased steadily from May to early October but has since started to depreciate. 

Columbus workers who helped secure those record results for shareholders are now demanding that their needs as employees be met, but said corporate greed is making negotiations nearly impossible. (Vext, which owns and operates four other Ohio dispensaries in Athens, Jackson, Jeffersonville and Portsmouth, did not respond to requests for comment.)

When the British Columbia-headquartered Vext bought and rebranded Strawberry Fields, Herbal Wellness Center employee Kismet Royce said the new ownership fired the whole staff and had them re-interview for their jobs. “For some people, it did put them back at a lower paygrade. For other people it put everybody back in a plateaued position,” said Royce, who traced the initial organizing push made by the workers in part to wrongful terminations and favoritism.

Herbal Wellness Center employee and strike captain Blaine Patton said these early unionization efforts were made easier by the close-knit bond developed previously between the workers. “We’ve all seen and dealt with issues — seeing coworkers subject to unfair discipline, wrongful firings and how management treats us,” Patton said. 

Scott DeYarmon, vice president of Teamsters Local 413, said the dispensary workers originally organized with the Local in 2023 before Vext acquired the shop. “The night before we were supposed to start negotiating, they told us they had sold the business,” DeYarmon said. 

Following the purchase, Vext petitioned for a new union election, a request that was denied by the National Labor Relations Board.

DeYarmon said subsequent negotiations have been purposefully drawn out by Vext’s Cincinnati-based attorney, and meetings repeatedly rescheduled by Vext’s council. “What we’re asking for is equitable wage increases, wage structure and discipline. It’s a common-sense ask,” said DeYarmon, who declined to share a formal list of demands with negotiations ongoing. “The rest of our state is watching. Toledo, Zanesville, Cincinnati – they’re watching. It’s the fastest growing industry in the United States.”

In a late November press release, Eric Offenberger, CEO of Vext, ascribed much of the company’s recent profitability to its expansion in Ohio, writing that Vext expects to “remain focused on maximizing performance across our five Ohio dispensaries.”

Patton, for his part, downplayed the role of Vext executives in this success, crediting the customer experience created in-shop by the workers. “If they want to make money,” he said, “they need to support the people that are willing to make them money.”

A sign taped to the front desk of the dispensary entrance states that Herbal Wellness Center recognizes and respects employees’ right to strike. And while the ongoing actions of employees posted outside of the store haven’t deterred every customer from crossing the picket line, organizers remain hopeful that their dedication will pay off in the long run. “This will spark a change for the Ohio cannabis industry as a whole,” Royce said. “Once we get what we ask for, who’s to say that other Ohio cannabis workers won’t get what they need?”