Lewis Ginter workers hold one-day strike, accuse management of 'regressive bargaining'

Dozens of Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden workers gathered outside of the garden’s front gates on Thursday afternoon, battling the heat with drums, tambourines, and group chants after striking earlier that day.

The workers’ union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, held the one-day strike and picket in protest of failed wage negotiations with garden management. The union filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the garden back in April, stating that management had begun offering lower wage proposals than previously discussed.

Since unionizing in November 2024, workers have made several proposals to garden leaders, including higher wages, a clothing stipend, extra floating holidays, and parental leave. The union has reduced its initial ask for an across-the-board raise of $3.50 an hour to $2.15 an hour – but workers say that management has also reduced its counter-proposal from an initial 50 cents more an hour to 2.5% more an hour (about 44 cents per hour for the average staffer).

Workers held their first public picket back in April and have continued to protest during the past two months as negotiations continue.

“It doesn’t feel good to have expected us to get a resolution and then still be here over a month later,” said horticulturist and union member Clare Reines. “The garden is engaging in regressive bargaining practices, and that is an unfair labor practice that is illegal under the National Labor Relations Board.”

The garden’s chief marketing and experience officer, Mary Heather Parch, said that the garden’s wage proposals remain progressive, but management cannot conduct interviews to discuss the particular details in the midst of the bargaining process. The IAM Union’s third wage proposal changed the structure of discussions from just base rates for starting wages to base rates along with annual wage increases, she said, and the garden simply pivoted to the structure the union had used.

The workers, however, have stated that it was garden management that initially changed the structure of discussions. 

The majority of the union’s membership (about 60 to 70 workers are union members) participated in the strike, according to Reines. About 70 workers of Lewis Ginter’s total staff of 110 people are eligible for the union. 

Unlike a multi-day strike, a one-day strike does not require a union vote, and members already voted to authorize potential striking earlier this month. Launching a multi-day strike, or additional one-day strikes, is on the table for the union, said IAM union organizer Bridget Fitzgerald.

Since the garden opened its $31-million expansion on May 23, while continuing negotiations with the union, the garden’s staffers have been given significantly more work but no extra pay, said maintenance coordinator and union member Lucas Jacoby. Lewis Ginter has added an additional 7.5 acres of outdoor spaces, nearly doubling the garden’s size, and with more land came more attendees, especially during the garden’s free admission day on Juneteenth.

“It’s been pretty crazy almost every day since the expansion opened. And for me personally, as the maintenance man, they added on a whole new gigantic building for me to maintain, but have not offered me any more money in two years,” Jacoby said. “They could have given everyone an across-the-board $1 raise two years ago and avoided this whole mess.”

However, Parch said that the garden has taken “many steps to support and compensate” employees throughout the years, including multiple raises, which brought starting salaries from $10 an hour in 2020 to $16 an hour today and providing the average employee with 11 paid days off each year.

“[The garden has] covered the vast majority of health benefit cost increases in the past few years,” Parch said, “transparently including wages in job postings so that applicants can make an informed decision, and regularly benchmarking against similar non-profit organizations such as museums and other botanical gardens to keep our compensation in line.”

Parch also said that union members have “misrepresented the financial situation of the garden” by pointing to the organization’s 2024-2025 Form 990 federal tax filing – which reported that Lewis Ginter made $12.8 million in gross revenue and $2.6 in net revenue that fiscal year – as evidence that the garden could support much higher employee wages.

The tax filing required Lewis Ginter to report restricted donations, but the garden is not allowed to use those restricted funds for the general operating budget and must put them towards specific projects at the request of the donor, Parch said.

“The union’s interpretation demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of how non-profits work,” she said.

Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s government and education reporter. Support her work and articles like this one by making a contribution to the Citizen.