Page 8A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Friday, February 5, 2016
WAGE: One amendment
would exclude agricultural
workers from the increase
Continued from 1A
Eric Mortenson/EO Media Group
Blair Busenbark, COO of Adaptive Plastics Inc. in
Salem,, says marijuana growers are new buyers of the
company’s Solexx brand greenhouse panels.
MARIJUANA: Chalice Farms
is opening a 24,000 square foot
facility near the Portland Airport
Continued from 1A
the pot trade.
A Salem company,
Adaptive Plastics
Inc., makes a brand of
translucent, twin-walled
greenhouse panels called
Solexx. They diffuse light
and insulate well, and you
can’t see what’s growing
inside.
Blair Busenbark, the
COO and sales boss, said
the company also sells to
traditional plant nurseries
and to orchardists, but
marijuana growers are the
new market.
A lot of people attending
the trade show were
“consumers of the product,”
Busenbark guessed.
“We look at it as a
business opportunity,” he
VDLG³$VLJQL¿FDQWSDUWRI
our business is cannabis.”
The next aisle over held
a booth for the Oregon
Cannabis Association,
DQRQSUR¿WSURIHVVLRQDO
organization representing
growers, processors,
dispensaries and other
businesses. The executive
director is Amy Margolis
of Portland, whose Emerge
Law Group specializes
in weed work. One of the
¿UP¶VDWWRUQH\V'DYH
Kopilak, was the primary
drafter of Measure 91,
which legalized recreational
use, possession and
cultivation in Oregon.
Voters approved it in 2014
and the law took effect July
1, 2015.
Conventional farmers
might respond “Hmm,
well...” but Margolis said
Oregon’s cannabis trade is,
at root level, an agricultural
enterprise. Voters said so.
³,QWKH\RI¿FLDOO\
made cannabis an ag
product,” she said. “The
upshot is, this became a
cash crop like any other
cash crop.”
But it is a different
animal, for sure. One of
WKHELJJHURXW¿WV&KDOLFH
Farms, is opening a
24,000 square foot grow,
processing and distribution
facility near the Portland
Airport. It will be in a
warehouse.
Other businesses
DERXQG6HFXULW\¿UPV
(CannaGuard) that
provide video monitoring
and “product transport.”
Software (CannaScore) that
allows you to check your
regulatory compliance.
Marketers, electricians,
packaging companies and
extraction services. The
latter extract cannabis oil
IURP¿EURXVPDULMXDQD
plant material. The oil is
used in edibles consumed
Eric Mortenson/EO Media Group
Vendors at the cannabis convention in Portland
touted items such as “Bud Bar” displays retailers can
use to highlight product.
by medical marijuana
patients.
Some of the businesses
crowding into cannabis
will no doubt fall by
the wayside, but people
attending the convention
seemed ready to chase
what they see as economic
opportunity.
Noah Stokes, founder
and CEO of CannaGuard,
WKHVHFXULW\¿UPRSHQHG
the conference by noting
marijuana is still federally
illegal.
“We’re saying screw it,
we’re actually going to do
this,” Stokes said. “And I
love it.”
outcry from constituents
in Eastern Oregon that the
governor’s minimums were
too high for that region of the
state.
Brown’s proposal would
raise the minimum from $9.25
to $14.50 in the Portland
metro area and to $13.25 in
the rest of the state by 2022.
“We heard a lot of concern
about some of those frontier
parts of the state that they were
going to have a particularly
hard time accommodating
those increases,” Dembrow
said. “Some preferred their
counties to be excluded
completely from an increase
in minimum wage. That is, to
me, just not acceptable. There
are workers in those counties
that need a raise.”
Under Dembrow’s propos-
al{obj:12196}, wages would
increase statewide to $9.75
in July 2016 and rise grad-
ually from there until 2022
according to region.
The lowest rate of $12.50
would apply to the following
counties: Baker, Coos, Crook,
Curry, Douglas, Gilliam,
Grant, Harney, Jefferson,
Klamath, Lake, Malheur,
Morrow, Sherman, Umatilla,
Union, Wallowa and Wheeler.
Ron Vernini, mayor of
Ontario, said his city fails to
attract businesses because
companies prefer to go to
nearby Idaho where wages are
lower.
Raising the minimum
could “in many cases destroy
jobs in communities that now
are struggling to keep from
going deeper into the spiral of
poverty,” he wrote in a letter to
lawmakers.
Senators have pitched
various amendments to
Dembrow’s proposal. It was
unclear Thursday if any of
those would receive consider-
ation Friday.
One by Sen. Chuck
Thomsen, R-Hood River,
would exclude agricultural
workers from the wage
increase.
Many farmers have spoken
out against a minimum wage
increase, saying it would
force them to make cuts to
employees.
Trevor Frahm, who owns
a farm in Nyssa, said a $1
increase in the minimum
would force him to eliminate
a few of his 20 employees.
³$ WKUHH WR ¿YHGROODU
increase would force me to
move my facility to Idaho,
which is only three miles
away,” Frahm said.
Surveys indicate most
people in Portland, where
housing costs have skyrock-
eted, support a hike in the
minimum.
Patti Whitney-Wise of
Partners for a Hunger-Free
Oregon in Portland said
families need an increase just
to meet basic needs.
Dembrow’s wage plan is
based on data from Portland
State University and the
University of Washington
that shows what income is
UHTXLUHGWREHVHOIVXI¿FLHQWLQ
different counties in Oregon.
“We are one state, and
yet we are not one state,”
Dembrow said.
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