Quick Facts
Biography
Dan Rush is an American union organizer and former statewide political and special operations director of the United Food and Commercial Workers for cannabis and hemp worker. He is known for being a leader in the United States Labor movement in politics and for cannabis and hemp industry workers, and a civil and motorcycle rights activist. Rush began his career in the union in the 1980s as a senior official responsible for carrying out statewide ballot industry politics and eventually founded the concept of organizing medical cannabis and hemp workers in the United States and Canada. He was later investigated by the FBI for allegedly breaching union discipline in 2015, by influencing unions’ decisions for bribes from cannabis and hemp industry stakeholders.
Career
He was born in Oakland, California. He has a high school diploma from the Dewey Continuation High School in Oakland CA. He was a known as a Democratic Party reformer and in his elected position as 15th Assembly District executive board member for much of his career, beginning his term as a Political Director at the UFCW Local 120 from 1991 to 2006. He was put in charge as a statewide special operations director inside of the union’s Political Department and then founding and developing UFCW Local 5's medical cannabis and hemp workers in 2007. In 2011, he was named national director of medical cannabis and hemp division for the UFCW International Union. In September 2013, he was summoned from the Bay area to Washington DC, to serve as the director of cannabis workers rising of the North America campaign of the UFCW.
Controversy
In September 2013, he was named as the director for cannabis workers rising of the North America campaign to organize the medical cannabis in the North America. In August 2015, he was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the corruption charges for using his influence to favor Oakland cannabis business people in order to pay off a loan. Rush is scheduled to go to trial in January 2017.