Union activity at Chicago Botanic Garden heats up

A labor dispute at the Chicago Botanic Garden continues to build.

Workers seeking better working conditions and the right to unionize are digging in, said Matt Muchowski, organizing director of Chicago and Midwest Regional Joint Board of Workers United, the labor group supporting botanic garden workers.

“The workers are fired up to keep organizing,” he said, adding, “They are continuing to talk to their coworkers about signing union cards and organizing through the winter.”

Labor organizing efforts (more information: CBGworkersunited.org) went public this summer with a union-card campaign amid allegations of retaliatory terminations, said Muchowski — allegations that Chicago Botanic Garden dispute. Garden workers then in October took their fight to the county, which via the Forest Preserve District of Cook County owns the botanic garden’s land and provides the organization with millions of dollars in annual funding.

The forest preserve’s board of commissioners issued support for the workers’ “courageous” efforts to speak up during a Nov. 18 press conference.

“As workers at the Chicago Botanic Garden move forward with unionization efforts, I stand firmly in support of their right to do so,” said Toni Preckwinkle, president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, during the event.

Kai Shin, a former facilities assistant at Chicago Botanic Garden’s Windy City Harvest program, has helped lead workers’ efforts to organize and spoke at the press conference. Shin also spoke at a forest preserve board meeting in October, when the board passed a resolution supporting the garden’s workers, and said he was fired one week later.

He told The Record his termination was in retaliation for speaking out against his former colleagues’ “unjust terminations.”

“This kind of retaliation makes it clear what the garden’s response is to the legislation of our elected officials,” Shin said Nov. 18, referencing the resolution approved in October.

The Cook County resolution urges botanic garden leadership “to accept card check neutrality“ — a process where the employer remains neutral while workers openly consider organizing — to demonstrate it is “an employer committed to recognizing the autonomy of workers to exercise their rights.”

Forest Preserve District Commissioner Alma Anaya, a member of the board’s Chicago Botanic Garden Committee, sponsored the resolution and issued a statement supporting the workers on Nov. 18.

“Historically in Chicago and in Cook County, we have been an area that respects our workers,” she said. “We fight for our workers and any type of wins that we have had for worker rights have really started here. I want to thank the workers for being so brave, for speaking up, for talking to their colleagues, for standing firm on their values and understanding that they can work with us.” 

Botanic garden responds

In response to the county’s resolution, Chicago Botanic Garden President and Chief Executive Officer Jean Franczyk disputed the retaliation allegations stating in a letter that “the Garden would never terminate an employee for supporting or not supporting union activity’ and “any employment decisions we made are made based on objective, job-related factors, not an employee’s perceived union view.”

She also wrote that the garden respects employees’ rights “to support, or not support” union representation, but the nonprofit organization disagrees with the suggestion for “card check neutrality” and issued support for a secret-ballot process.

“Federal labor law establishes a process for employees to exercise their rights by making their choice for or against representation in a secret ballot election administered and supervised by the National Labor Relations Board,” Franczyk wrote. “Embracing ‘card check neutrality’ would eliminate the opportunity for employees to vote in a secret election.” 

Franczyk said many of the garden’s employees do not support unionization efforts and some have come to management to express opposition to those efforts. She said if garden workers voted via secret ballot to unionize, the garden would “honor that choice and bargain in good faith.”

In response to The Record’s request for more information, Chicago Botanic Garden Public Relations Manager Julie McCaffrey said that “labor neutrality” doesn’t support the rights of all employees.

“‘Neutrality’ in this context means the employer commits to staying silent — i.e., to not communicate with our staff or even answer their questions concerning a union’s organizing campaign,” she wrote in an email. “We believe that would amount to an abdication of our staff-developed value of open, direct communication between employees and leadership.”  

McCaffrey also touted the botanic garden’s workplace culture as a reason that garden employees have not unionized in the organization’s 53-year history.

“We’ve worked hard to build a culture at the Garden where every voice can be heard, where our employees are treated with respect and where leadership and staff work together with trust and transparency to resolve concerns as they arise,” said McCaffrey, who added that the garden uses only union labor for outsourced construction.

At the press conference in November, Preckwinkle celebrated the more than 400 workers at Chicago Botanic Garden who “make the visitor experience extraordinary” and deserve respect and the right to organize. The workers include horticulturists, landscape crews, educators and public program staff, she said. 

Preckwinkle said the resolution also applies to workers at Cook County museums, nonprofits and cultural organizations “who are courageously raising their voices and asking for a seat at the table. Let’s keep fighting for fairness, equity and the right to organize.”

Workers’ complaints

Shin said problems at the garden have been ongoing for at least a year, and ironically, in the weeks leading up to his criticism, the botanic garden had been pushing yearly whistleblower training.

Shin spoke up after what he called an example of retaliation. He alleges that a colleague was fired for commenting to a friend about low pay with Windy City Harvest, the botanic garden’s urban gardening program with locations on the South and West sides of the city.

Shin claims at least four other people at Windy City Harvest also lost their jobs over the summer and said that Windy City Harvest accomplishes the opposite of its goal to help people progress in the workforce.

“I started in spring. By June and July, two colleagues had been terminated. Mid-August had … back-to-back-to-back terminations,” he said.

In response to the terminations, Shin said that, backed by some colleagues, he sent an “ethics email” to botanic garden management. He reportedly received a message in return from his supervisor that called the email hostile. Shin’s duties as facilities assistant allegedly were then downgraded to mopping and sweeping. 

After speaking at the October county commissioners’ meeting, Shin said he was terminated with his supervisor saying he requested the “wrong kind of paid time off” to go speak at the meeting.

McCaffrey said the botanic garden will not comment on individual personnel decisions.

Bailey Uttich, an aquaponics coordinator at Windy City Harvest’s North Lawndale location told The Record she loves her job but believes Shin was retaliated against for speaking up.

“The management and culture is not good for a cohesive environment,” she said, adding that she wants to see the organization practice what it preaches in relation to working conditions.

Seasonal botanic garden employee Angellica Kucinski spoke at the press conference and criticized the garden’s response to workers’ concerns. She said the garden’s lack of response to an emailed letter signed by several workers is “disappointing but unfortunately not surprising.”

McCaffrey said the letter in question — which The Record reviewed and was signed by 27 workers — came from an anonymous email account and the Garden doesn’t respond to anonymous email accounts.

Kucinski also accused the botanic garden of retaliatory practices and wants seasonal workers to be acknowledged as essential workers.

“The garden would not be the renowned institution that it is without the hard work we put in day in and day out,” she said. These workers deserve to “live and take care of ourselves and our families. … We will continue to stand together and fight for a better future.”

Employee Lorilin Meyer said at the press conference in November that she believes organizing can make a positive difference. To see county commissioners, union leaders and employees willing to speak up is “everything,” she said: “I believe we can make change for everyone.”

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