Courtesy of Local 217

After nearly a year of negotiations, New Haven Public Schools cafeteria workers secured an updated contract with the district. 

The Board of Education approved the agreement last Friday. The new contract provides for a wage increase of $6 an hour over the course of the next four years, beginning with an increase of $2.50 for the 2024-25 school year. Local 217 UNITE HERE, Connecticut’s primary labor union for hospitality workers, represented cafeteria staff in the negotiations.

“This contract will see the most significant raises that the cafeteria workers in New Haven have achieved in decades,” Joshua Stanley GRD ’18, Local 217’s secretary-treasurer said. “This is a very significant achievement and event.” 

The additional $6 represents a 28 percent wage increase for the lowest-paid classifications of workers, according to Stanley. The contract also provides additional training for lead cooks.

Stanley emphasized that the raises will tangibly improve the lives of cafeteria workers.

“In terms of the jump forward this will bring for our members, this will get them back on their feet,” Stanley said. “Rent, food, bills have gone up so much in the past five years that while this is an historic contract that we’re all extremely proud of, what it will make possible is [for] people to afford the cost of living.”

Betty Alford, a lead cook at Truman School, said she was “so excited” about the new contract.

“They gave us what we wanted, and I’m thankful for it. I’m so grateful for it. I can do more things now, with this raise. I can buy more things now, because, before you’d have to penny pinch everything,” Alford said.

Negotiations between Local 217 and the school system began in June 2024. 

Earlier this year, in freezing January winds, cafeteria workers picketed in front of the Board of Education building to push for an agreement. The protests followed Local 217’s successful advocacy for workers at Omni New Haven Hotel.

Overall, Alford said, the contract negotiation process was “great,” although Stanley declined to describe it on the record. 

“We ought to mark this moment as a great example of negotiation without a great deal of extra clamor,” Edward Joyner, the secretary of the Board of Education, said at the Friday meeting. “I think it’s a template for future negotiations with union staff.”

The new contract will run through the 2027-28 academic year.