Harshini Kanala, Contributing Writer
Workers at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden rejected their employer’s final contract offer after unionizing for increased wages and benefits since November 2024.
The LGBG Workers United are the second group of LGBG workers in the US to unionize.
Eligible staff voted to organize for “living wages, safer working conditions, better benefits, and a seat at the table where the decisions that affected our well-being are made,” LGBG Workers United stated in a social media post.
“We are wrapping up a 2-year-long, $31 Million Expansion at the garden, but union-eligible garden staff (everyone but the managers) haven’t seen a raise in 2 years,” LGBG Workers United stated.
As of Aug. 13, LGBG Workers United announced that they chose to reject the employer’s “last, best and final offer” and will “go through internal procedures and notifications before details and next steps are released.”
The LGBG Workers United declined a request for comment from The Commonwealth Times due to time conflicts.
Singer-Songwriter Jesse Welles, known for his folk protest songs, moved his concert at the garden to the National on July 15 in solidarity with the union. He offered refunds for participants who could no longer attend.
“To the fans: we would not want to put you in a position to cross the picket line, we are sorry, ” Welles stated in a social media post. “To the garden: pay a living wage or get lost. To the workers: never back down,”
Emma Hunter, a fan of Welles, said she supports the union and believes employee wages should take precedence over the concert rescheduling.
“Ultimately, the person who disagreed [with me] is still a working-class person,” Hunter said. “We are still on the same side and our biggest pinch point right now…is just getting everyone to agree amongst ourselves that capitalism is the real enemy here. We need to do more than just call them out. We need to withhold our labor until we win.”
Hunter said she believes striking is one of the most effective tools that workers have.
“We as the working class may not have the capital, but we certainly have the numbers,” Hunter said. “Without us, the world stops and I want everyone to always remember that. We are just so powerful, more than I think people realize on a daily basis. Workers are power; you are power.”
The Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden did not respond to a request for comment from the CT.
Some patrons of the LGBG shared an email from the garden to Reddit, according to ABC News.
“The recent news and press around the Garden’s negotiations with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Union (Machinists) has threatened the very well-being of our Garden, your Garden, and thus the community,” LGBG stated in an email shared with ABC News. “The very place you love has unfairly come under attack based on misinformation.”
LGBG reached agreement on 23 of the 25 articles in the proposed union contract through electronic and in-person meetings with the unionized workers, LGBG stated in the email.
“The call for a boycott of the Garden by the Union doesn’t hurt the Union; it hurts the Garden, its employees, the mission and most importantly, the community,” LGBG stated.