Last Days for Entry Into the California State Fair Cannabis Awards Competition

Sorry- Long post here…”Pending wage claims against a licensed Trinity County farm include photographs of freezing working conditions, with one worker reporting he sought shelter inside a steel shipping container, without access to drinking water, a bathroom or light.
In interviews, two workers told of laboring on the farm for 11 days behind a locked gate, under spartan conditions. They provided copies of work logs that showed as many as 21 workers who put in 13- to 14-hour days gathering the hThe container was unheated to protect cannabis that was to be fresh frozen, but workers said on the last two days, as temperatures fell below freezing, they secretly brought in a propane heater. According to interviews, the majority of workers were from Argentina, recruited by a compatriot who met them at a grocery store parking lot, then led them up the twisting dirt road.
The owner of that farm, Samuel Elias Schachter, made no reference to how workers would be accommodated on his remote 12-greenhouse farm atop Browns Mountain, files at the county planning office in Weaverville show.
But neither was there an expectation he should house those working on the 3,200-foot ridge, nearly an hour from town, his bookkeeper told The Times. It has long been common practice for cannabis workers in Northern California’s Emerald Triangle to sleep in their cars, or bring tents.
“I’m not quite sure why they’re saying they need housing,” said Jeannine Greenslade, who said she was asked by Schachter to respond to The Times’ questions on his behalf.

Nor did Greenslade see an issue with the padlocked gates on the long mountain road leading up to the farm. Cannabis operations, by their nature, require security, she said. “Anybody can come and go,” she said. “Nobody’s holding them.”
Workers interviewed by The Times said they did not know the padlock combinations. “No podíamos salir,” one worker said. We couldn’t leave.
“In our case, it’s not like [human] trafficking,” another said, “but we don’t like that they closed the gate … because we want to stay free.”
Where Schachter’s bookkeeper and his workers most disagreed was the matter of pay.
Two workers from the 2021 season and four from 2022 allege they were promised payment after the harvest, and then were told there was only money enough for partial pay — as little as $900 for 117 hours work. The 2021 workers filed a federal civil suit seeking $160,000 in wages and damages. The 2022 claims were filed with the state labor department, and averaged $9,400 apiece. One of those claims was dropped, without details of how it was resolved.
“He has paid everyone,” Greenslade said, contradicting the workers’ signed statements that they are owed wages.
Schachter took the labor condition allegations seriously, said Greenslade. “We’re doing what we need to do legally to comply.”
She said, though, that California regulations in regard to cannabis cultivation workers were vague and contradictory. She said it was unclear, for example, if the bands of workers who move from farm to farm at harvest time are “employees” or “independent contractors” or, Greenslade said, “just trimmers.”
Workers speaking to The Times said Schachter threatened to report them to federal immigration authorities, or castigated them.
“You can play the victim all you want,” he told a worker in text messages shared with the newspaper. “No one is going to care that it’s taking longer than expected to get paid.”
Another worker who filed a federal civil suit against Schachter over wage claims described a similar exchange.
“He was like, ‘Come on, bring it on … nobody’s going to hear you,'” the worker told The Times. “‘Nobody’s going to help you to do that to me. Nobody’s going to listen to you.'”
A criminal lawyer representing Schachter on unrelated domestic violence charges said he was unaware of the labor violation allegations.
That attorney, Thomas Ballanco, is himself a licensed cannabis grower and in separate matters is representing five workers who seek $105,000 in unpaid 2021 wages from a licensed operation in Hayfork. He said labor issues such as these are a facet of California cannabis’ long history of operating underground, hidden from the law.
“This is how employees were located, how they were treated and how they were paid,” Ballanco said. “Nobody wanted anybody to know anything. It was all cash. Nobody was on the books. …
“That’s not to excuse misbehavior,” he said. “It’s a partial explanation of why it’s so rampant.”
From…https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/cannabis-workers-face-death-exploitation-18085428.php
My take- THIS is “Legalization” and these are the kinds of people we empowered with “legalization”. Every greenhouse being “legally permitted” by guys like this shuts down another mom n pop. So yeah- Congratulations! on handing over our livelihood to the worst kinds of assholes not to mention the corporate mega-grows (who are probably doing the same kinds of stuff w/ migrant workers). It’s one thing to ask friends to work with you under difficult conditions but another entirely to go into your nice house/mansion each night and leave the helpers that you grabbed from a parking lot out in the cold and rain. Despicable. And the counties sell permits to these guys because they pay the county fees. “Legalization”…