As Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden prepares to unveil its $31-million expansion project in just less than a month, workers are still fiercely fighting for higher pay and better benefits in what has been a year-and-a-half-long negotiation process.
On April 21, about 20 to 25 garden workers – mostly horticulturists – stood outside Lewis Ginter’s entrance gates with signs saying, “LIVING WAGES NOW” and “NO WORKERS, NO GARDEN,” as cars streamed in for the first “Groovin’ in the Garden” concert of the spring. Just the night before, final negotiations between the workers and upper management over wages “did not go well,” workers said.
At the negotiation, garden workers – represented by their union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers – asked management for an across-the-board raise of $3.50 an hour. But management offered raises of only 2%, workers said. For most workers, with horticulturists making $17-24 an hour and assistant horticulturists making $15-17 an hour, a 2% raise would equal around 30-40 cents an hour…