The Legislature is capable of many things, but here’s something no one could have predicted in January. It managed to prove that “Saturday Night Live” was about a half century ahead of its time back in 1977.

Almost 50 years ago, SNL’s original cast did a take-off on what was a then-familiar ad campaign, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union television commercials where a group of actors urge viewers by song to “look for the union label, when you are buying that coat, dress or blouse.”

Instead of the Garment Workers Union, however, the SNL cast was singing as the American Dope Growers Union.

Laraine Newman urged people to forsake marijuana from Mexico or Colombia, and stick with the stuff that was grown on good American soil: “Look for the union label, when you are buying, that joint, lid or pound …”

Back then, the prospect of marijuana so legal that people who grew it not only wouldn’t get arrested but could be in a union was part of the joke.

Washington voters wiped out the first part of that joke in 2012. This year, the Legislature approved, and Gov. Bob Ferguson signed, a law allowing agricultural workers in the state’s marijuana industry to form unions.

As further proof that legal pot is mainstream, supporters included the food and commercial workers union. The folks speaking against weren’t police or the Drug Enforcement Administration, but included the corporate marijuana interests, the Washington CannaBusiness Association and folks leery of the union certification process. Opponents also worried about the oversupply of marijuana and the added cost of unionization making them less competitive with illegal pot.

Actual marijuana growers’ unions may be a ways off in Washington, but when they form they may want to take a page out of the SNL playbook and urge customers to shop union pot.

A video of the 1997 American Dope Growers commercial can be found on YouTube.

On another union note

The Legislature also approved – on a partisan vote – allowing union workers who go on strike or are locked out to receive some unemployment insurance payments during a labor dispute,

Not surprisingly, this was applauded by various unions and organized labor associations. It did not sit well with business organizations, government associations and school districts.

The proposal changed over the legislative process, and the final version limits benefits to six weeks that can’t be paid until after the second week of a strike or lockout. If the strike is later found to be illegal – like a teachers’ strike or a government workers’ strike – the benefits will have to be repaid.

There’s also a 10-year limit on the law, so if Ferguson signs the bill, it will end in 2035 unless the Legislature extends it.

Whether it will make workers more likely to vote to strike, or companies less likely to lock workers out, is open to debate. Having covered a few labor strikes (and, full disclosure, having served as president of the newspaper’s editorial union to negotiate contracts) it was my experience that workers are usually reluctant to strike unless they feel they have no choice. Most companies don’t want the disruption of a strike or a lockout, so they also don’t want to go there unless they feel it absolutely necessary.

In a few instances, the prospect of six weeks of unemployment benefits after a two-week wait might be enough to tip the scales toward a work stoppage. But in a few other instances, it might be enough to get both sides to put one more offer on the table.

Lions and tigers and bears? Oh no

Washington will soon have a new law outlawing acts with many large animals in traveling circuses.

The Legislature passed, and Ferguson signed last month, a bill that bans acts with lions, tigers, bears, elephants and apes in circuses or other shows that travel from town to town. They can be permitted at zoos or other permanent facilities.

The law takes effect this summer.