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As strikers enter third week, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden faces massive financial losses, yet focuses on union-busting instead of addressing poverty wages
Richmond, Va. – Resounding public support continues to power Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden workers as they enter their third week on strike, with reported attendance on Labor Day down by two-thirds.
In response to enthusiastic public support and the prospect of massive financial and operational losses for the employer, Lewis Ginter management has declined to resolve the strike in good faith at the bargaining table, and instead filed groundless legal claims in an attempt to forcibly bust the strike in court.
Recently filed court documents from Lewis Ginter provide no documentation or evidence for multiple demonstrably false claims filed by the business in a bid to break the strike. IAM Union, which represents the striking workers, has filed a countermeasure in court to dismiss the employer’s meritless, bad faith litigation.
“Lewis Ginter is hemorrhaging ticket sales and public goodwill because of their own bad behavior, and will continue as long as they refuse to bargain in good faith or pay living wages to their workers,” said Bill Haller, Associate General Counsel of IAM Union. “They need to do the right thing to resolve this strike, which is sitting down and negotiating fair wages with their employees, not filing bogus legal claims that misuse our court system in a cynical attempt to break the strike. Refusing to resolve the strike at the negotiation table is blatantly anti-union behavior and not in alignment with the values of fairness held by the Richmond community. Instead of making up lies to deflect from their actions and trying to take away their workers’ constitutionally protected right to protest, they should listen to their employees and the public, and end their practice of shameful poverty wages.”
