Posts tagged CMRJB Workers United
Workers at more Chicago cultural venues are unionizing, even during a precarious moment for museums
December 12, 2025 // Still, the process of unionization may not be smooth at every site. At Chicago Botanic Garden, there’s a disagreement between workers and management with what steps should be required to establish a union. Employees who are advocating for better pay, health care and safety on the job and are represented by CMRJB Workers United say they are asking employees to sign union cards. However, Chicago Botanic Garden leadership opposes that approach in favor of a secret ballot election to vote on the union. “To skip that step would really be disenfranchising those eligible employees,” Chicago Botanic Garden President and CEO Jean Franczyk told the Chicago Sun-Times. “The process has multiple steps and options that you can pursue. But the one that we think protects individual eligible workers’ rights is that supervised election.”
Cook Board president, officials back efforts to unionize at Chicago Botanic Garden
November 20, 2025 // But Garden officials said in a statement following Preckwinkle’s press conference that they will not agree to card-check neutrality and instead want to engage in a more formal process. “Federal labor law establishes a process for employees to exercise their rights in this regard by making their choice for or against representation in a secret ballot election administered and supervised by the National Labor Relations Board,” the statement said. “Were the Garden to recognize a labor union based solely on ‘card check neutrality,’ — i.e., without giving our employees a chance to be informed and have the ability to hold a secret ballot election on the issue — we would, in our view, be depriving our workers of their rights on this important issue.”