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Brian Trader shocks employees by ripping away healthcare insurance with four days notice to employees
Richmond, VA – The CEO for Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Brian Trader, abruptly cancelled healthcare coverage for all Lewis Ginter employees effectively today, October 1, 2026, sparking sharp rebuke from community members and workers.
“It’s now been one month since Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden’s dedicated, talented employees first walked out on strike, and instead of sitting down at the bargaining table to negotiate with us in good faith – as he is legally required to do – Lewis Ginter’s CEO’s response has been instead to continue his retaliation against us by stripping healthcare coverage for us and our families with four days notice,” said Laura Lee Folman, a Youth and Program Logistics Coordinator at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden who has worked there for 22 years of service. “Lewis Ginter pays us poverty wages so low we cannot afford basic necessities, and nearly all of us have or currently do face food and housing insecurity. Responding to Lewis Ginter’s highly skilled and committed employees asking that our jobs pay us enough to live on by ripping away our ability to get life-saving prescriptions and daily medications we and our families rely on flies in the face of every value Lewis Ginter and our larger Richmond community stands for.”
Strikers walked out on September 2, 2026. The next day, attendance to Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden was down two thirds, as the public resoundingly sided with strikers. Workers at Lewis Ginter are newly organized. They are on strike because Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden CEO Brian Trader has repeatedly refused to bargain in good faith by continuing to offer regressive wage proposals. A primary goal of negotiations for employees is raising all wages at LGBG closer to a living wage; Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden workers currently earn poverty wages as low as $17.52 per hour; the living wage for a single person with no children in Richmond, however, is $23.36 per hour. Lewis Ginter has spent $80,000 so far trying to bust its employees union, instead of agreeing to living wages.
Strikers and community members say that LGBG and Brian Trader are falling far short of living up to community values, or the values LGBG and Trader both claim to hold; specifically, integrity, social responsibility, and organizational sustainability.
Ironically, the first of the publicly-listed organizational “Core Comittments” LGBG cites on their website for their employees and public reads: “Our responsible management and supportive culture assure the Garden and team reach their full potential.”
