“We all deserve much better and have proven we refuse to back down.”
The fight for better wages at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden is getting thornier.
Unionized Lewis Ginter workers with LGBG Workers United voted Sept. 1 to go on strike over a breakdown in contract talks that have dragged on with the garden’s management for over a year.
At issue is the workers’ desire for better pay after they rejected what the garden’s management said was its best offer.
“I am hopeful this strike will finally make the garden wake up and realize our labor is essential for ongoing operations and the long-term success of the garden,” Eryn Boyle, an LGBG Workers United member and horticulturist, said in a press release. “We all deserve much better and have proven we refuse to back down. United we bargain, divided we beg.”
The strike vote comes after weeks of a public pressure campaign waged by the workers, who unionized with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Union in 2024. The union did not release the details of the vote to strike but said in its release “an overwhelming majority of union members voted in favor” of it.
The strike will begin on Sept. 2.
The unionized workers at the garden make, on average, $17.52 an hour and they have asked for an across-the-board raise of about $2.
Earlier this year, IAM Union filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board against the garden’s management, alleging that it had failed to bargain in good faith. The garden has denied this and said it has always bargained in good faith.
The workers have already held two one-day strikes and have urged people to boycott the garden. Big-name music artists like Jesse Welles and Graham Nash and smaller ones like The Dan Schutt Band and Ramona and the Holy Smokes have honored the workers’ calls for a boycott.
“Richmond is watching,” said IAM Union Organizer Bridget Fitzgerald. “Workers want to continue doing the jobs they love, but they also need to be able to afford to live in the community they serve.”
