Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden workers reject 'final' raise offer; strike possible

Union-represented workers at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden have rejected a pay raise proposal that garden officials described earlier this month as their "last, best and final offer," setting the stage for a possible strike.

LGBG Workers United – the unionized group of garden employees that is represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers – includes about 60 to 70 LGBG workers.

During a meeting at the garden this week, 77% of voting members voted to reject the garden's most recent offer (the details of which have not been released publicly), according to a statement from LGBG Workers United Aug. 13.

"Following this decisive vote, the LGBG Workers United and union representatives are beginning the necessary preparations for a strike authorization vote," the statement read.

That process requires several procedural steps before workers would vote about whether to strike, according to the organization.

The current starting wage of garden workers is $15 an hour, although the garden has tentatively agreed to raise starting wages to $16 an hour, according to union officials. Despite receiving annual raises in 2021-2024, workers have not been given a raise over the past two years since union negotiations began.

Prior to its most recent offer, the garden's previous offer was to increase hourly wages by 3%, which would equate to about 52 cents for the average staffer. The union called that proposal an "insulting and unlivable wage offer" that regressed from the garden's earlier offer of 75 cents more an hour.

The union initially was seeking $3.50 more an hour for workers but reduced that ask to $2.15 more an hour in June.

Unionized workers have held several protests outside the garden in recent months, and two prominent musical artists (Jesse Welles and Graham Nash) cancelled plans concerts at the garden, in solidarity with the workers.

Garden CEO Brian Trader said that those cancellations cost the garden tens of thousands of dollars and wrote in a letter to garden members that the garden has "unfairly come under attack" by misinformation spread by the union, which has "threatened the very well-being" of the garden and the community.

Trader wrote that workers' allegations of the garden engaging in regressive bargaining are false, saying that the garden has consistently bargained "in good faith" since a portion of garden workers voted to unionize in October of 2024.

Both the garden and the union have agreed to 23 of 25 total articles in proposed employee contracts, with the two remaining articles being wages and the collection of union dues. After nine rounds of wage negotiations that included six in-person meetings, a contract has still not been agreed upon.