It marks at least the second botanical garden in Virginia that has formed a union.
Sage grew up in Norfolk never having set foot in the city’s botanical garden. Their family couldn’t afford it.
They also grew up not knowing much about unions, which have long struggled to make inroads in Virginia, where public policy is stacked against organized labor.
Today, Sage, who uses they/them pronouns and declined to give their last name, works at the Norfolk Botanical Garden and is part of the newly formed union at the garden, which is run by a nonprofit. A majority of the Norfolk Botanical Garden’s union-eligible workers voted last month 43-23 to form a union with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, or IAM Union.
“My personal motivation for joining the union is just a sense of unity with everyone around the garden mainly,” Sage said in an interview. “This entire process brought us all together as one unified voice.”
The seeds of that process were planted in November when Norfolk Botanical Garden workers heard that workers at Richmond’s Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden had voted to form a union with IAM Union. After reaching out and learning more about how to form a union from the Lewis Ginter workers, the Norfolk garden workers got in touch with Bridget Fitzgerald, IAM Union’s southern assistant organizing coordinator.
In May, Fitzgerald helped the Norfolk garden workers launch the union organizing campaign, which culminated in July’s formal vote to form the union.
Sage said the idea of forming a union spread by word of mouth among Norfolk garden workers and grew to where things stand today. They said it’s been important to form real connections with people as part of the union organizing process.
“Everyone’s voice itself, in themselves, is very important,” Sage said. “So just getting to know other people and really getting to be on the same level is very important as well.”
The campaign attracted community support in the form of hundreds of signatures on a petition, and support from local Democratic leaders like US Rep. Bobby Scott and state Sen. Angela Williams Graves.
Fitzgerald said the Norfolk Botanical Garden hired a “labor consultant” as part of an effort to get workers to vote against the union. She added that a lot of the information workers got from mid-level managers and supervisors was anti-union.
Norfolk Botanical Garden’s chief marketing officer, Kelly Welsh, said the nonprofit plans to bargain in good faith. She did not specifically address Dogwood questions about the labor consultant.
“We remain committed to supporting our entire team and cultivating a workplace rooted in our shared vision and values,” Welsh said in an emailed statement.
According to its website, the Norfolk Botanical Garden has an operating budget of $6.9 million and a $17 million endowment. The garden opened in 1939, spans 175 acres, and has more than 60 themed gardens.
As they prepare for bargaining, the Norfolk garden workers are determining what their specific bargaining priorities are. But broadly speaking, they want better wages along with more say about their workplace conditions and policies. They also aim to negotiate for a guaranteed inclement-weather policy and clear attendance practices.
“Most of these workers are making below a living wage,” Fitzgerald said in an interview, adding the typical starting pay at the garden is $15 an hour. “And Norfolk is not a cheap area to live in.”
Fitzgerald hopes the management at the Norfolk Botanical Garden understands the organization will benefit from having a unionized workforce that is likely to have less turnover.
“The workers will have a voice and be able to help apply their knowledge and their expertise in a constructive way to make the garden a better place, not only for the public, but for the people who work there,” Fitzgerald said.
Correction: A majority of roughly 70 Norfolk Botanical Garden workers voted to form their union. The garden has about 150 employees, and a previous version of this story did not clarify that only a portion of them participated in the union vote.
