It’s not every day that two major recording artists cancel shows in solidarity with Virginia workers.
But that’s exactly what happened yesterday when Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden workers held a one-day strike.
In response, singer Jesse Welles and classic rock icon Graham Nash scrapped plans to perform at the garden rather than risk the shame that comes with crossing a picket line.
Welles had a blunt message for the garden’s management: “pay a living wage or get lost.”
These workers tell me they make an average of $17.52 an hour and are currently asking for a $2 raise. I’m told management’s latest offer amounted to an average raise of about 50 cents.
As regular Virginia Capital readers know, Lewis Ginter workers have been trying to negotiate their first union contract for over a year now. They have a host of things they want to see in the contract, but the biggest sticking point for now seems to be over the initial raise.
In addition to the one-day strike, workers are calling on the public to boycott the garden. In today’s story, I heard from a photographer who is honoring the boycott.
