The Tribunal administratif du travail (TAT) ruled on Friday that the union representing SAQ workers cannot also represent employees of the SQDC.
SEMB-SAQ, which is affiliated to the CSN union, first applied to represent workers at eight of the twelve operational branches of the provincial cannabis monopoly on October 18 of last year, the day after marijuana was legalized in Canada.
But the TAT determined that the SEMB-SAQ did not obtain the minimum membership threshold of 35% at each location.
The tribunal also rejected separate applications by the union to individually represent workers at the dispensary chain's locations in Trois-Rivières, Mascouche, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, and on Sainte-Catherine Street West and de l'Acadie Boulevard in Montreal.
Workers at two SQDC branches are unionized — at Montreal's Saint-Hubert Street location, as well as in Rimouski. Both of those locations are represented by the United Food & Commercial Workers.
Applications for the UFCW to represent workers at the SQDC's branches in Mirabel and Sainte-Foy have not yet been approved.