Report · Oct 1, 2026
The People Making Your Edibles Just Unionized
Workers at Smiling Bud in Ridgefield voted to join UFCW Local 360. They make more of the NJ market than the name on the box would tell you.
UFCW Local 360 · NJBIZ · Ridgefield, Bergen County
We talk a lot about growers, brands, and dispensaries. We almost never talk about the people in the middle who actually make the stuff. Workers at Smiling Bud in Ridgefield (Bergen County) just voted to join UFCW Local 360, and I think it's one of the most important stories in Jersey cannabis right now.
Who Smiling Bud is
Smiling Bud runs a 52,000-square-foot manufacturing facility. They handle extraction, packaging, and fulfillment, and they make edibles and concentrates. The big thing to know: they also do white-label and co-manufacturing for other brands.
That means the gummy or cart you bought with one brand's name on it might have been made in this building. These workers touch a lot more of the NJ market than the Smiling Bud name would tell you.
What the workers are saying
Jessyca Padilla, who works at Smiling Bud, said it best: this is "about building a workplace where people feel respected, heard, supported and valued."
UFCW Local 360's organizing director Hugh Giordano said manufacturing workers "deserve respect, stability and the opportunity to build real careers," and the local's president Sam Ferraino Jr. said, "New Jersey cannabis isn't an experiment anymore. It's an industry."
He's right. This industry has real jobs now, and the people doing them want the same things anybody wants from a job.
Part of a bigger wave
Smiling Bud isn't the first. Since legalization, workers at a bunch of NJ cannabis companies have joined UFCW Local 152, UFCW Local 360, and Teamsters Local 469. New Jersey law also requires cannabis companies to negotiate in good faith when workers organize, which makes Jersey one of the stronger states for cannabis labor.
Why this matters to the people buying
The folks running extraction and packaging are a big part of whether your product is consistent, clean, and dosed right. Workers who are trained, paid fairly, and stick around are the ones who catch problems before they hit the shelf. High turnover in a production facility is how you end up with a 10mg gummy that hits like 30.
When I review something, I'm judging the work of a lot of people I'll never meet. So shout out to the Smiling Bud crew. I want to hear from more of the people making NJ cannabis, so if you work in a grow, a lab, or a kitchen and want to talk, my DMs are open.
Sources
Right of reply
Quotes are from the union’s announcement as reported by NJBIZ. I haven’t contacted Smiling Bud or UFCW Local 360 directly. Workers who want to talk: my DMs are open.
How this was put together
Written October 1, 2026 from the reporting linked at the bottom. Quotes were checked against the original announcement.