The Chicago Board of Education on Thursday approved a new contract with lunchroom staff after more than a year of negotiations, raising worker’s wage floors and warding off a strike.
Under the agreement lunchroom workers represented by Unite Here Local 1, including cooks and attendants, will receive raises to their current pay as well as increases based on their position and years of work. Wages were a key issue for the union as it has reported that many of the roughly lunchroom workers it represents had difficulties affording necessities under their last contract.
Unite Here Local 1 currently represents roughly 1,500 CPS lunchroom workers, according to the union.
All lunchroom staff will earn at least $21 an hour under the new agreement and associate managers can earn up to $27 an hour, according to Chicago Public Schools. Next summer, all employees will receive a 4% cost of living increase, followed by a 2.5% raise in 2028.
Previously, a vast majority of lunchroom workers were making $18.42 or less an hour, according to the union. Average salaries ranged from about $23,400 to $37,400, according to CPS’ employee roster from earlier this year.
A survey the union conducted in 2025 found nearly half had trouble affording basic necessities, and 67% struggled to afford food at times. The survey also found that 22% of lunchroom workers received SNAP benefits and visited food banks.
An analysis by the Chicago Sun-Times earlier this year identified CPS among the top 10 employers statewide in terms of the number of their workers who receive SNAP food assistance.
Letia Downing-Lowe, a lunchroom attendant at Eli Whitney Elementary for 11 years, called the agreement a “breath of fresh air” and said lunchroom workers feel “more respected.”
“We’ve brought to the table so much more that we didn’t have,” said Downing-Lowe, who was also part of the union’s negotiating team.
Longtime workers like Downing-Lowe will see additional increases under the new contract. Those with 10 years of service will receive a $1 per hour raise and those with 20 years will see increases of $2 an hour, CPS said.
The deal also establishes a more “consistent” wage structure for lunchroom managers and cooks, according to the district. Their pay was previously based on the number of meals served at school.
The new agreement covers four years from July 2025 through June, 2029, and will cost the district nearly $65 million, CPS said. The district will have to make retroactive payments to honor the deal. The last contract expired in June 2025.
Wages and staffing levels were two of the biggest sticking points in negotiations, according to the union. CPS has steadily decreased the number of lunchroom workers as it deals with ongoing budget deficits.
Downing-Lowe hopes the new contract will lead to more applicants.
“Because the wages have gone up, hopefully we can hire new people and the staffing can get back to where it was,” Downing-Lowe said.
The union took escalating actions over the last few months as talks seemed to stall and it appeared a strike was on the horizon.
In April, union members performed acts of civil disobedience to “sound the alarm” on their need for a new contract. Several workers were detained by police after they sat in the street in front of CPS headquarters to call attention to their lack of a contract. Both sides had also agreed to call in a federal mediator who typically intervenes when talks have hit an impasse in order to prevent a strike.
And in July the union requested the start of a fact-finding process. That’s where a third party reviews arguments on both sides of a dispute and issues a report. Under state law school district workers aren’t allowed to strike until 30 days after the fact-finding report is released.
But the union and CPS reached a tentative agreement on Oct. 1 and it was ratified by the union on Oct. 11, according to the district.
At Thursday’s board meeting CPS Superintendent and CEO Macquiline King celebrated the deal.
“I thank our lunchroom employees for their dedication, I thank them for sticking it out with us and I'm glad an agreement has been reached that honors their commitment to our students and school communities,” King said.
