The District U-46 School Board has approved new contracts with the unions representing the its food service workers and its transportation workers. Employees in food service will work under a new policy that extends holiday pay to all staff, provides new paid holidays, guarantees raises rather than having them based on merit and includes seniority pay, according to the SEIU Local 73 website. The contract covers about 166 full- and part-time employees, excluding management, SEIU Local 73 Communications Director Eric Bailey said. Members voted to ratify the contract Sept. 4, and the school board signed off on the deal Sept. 9. The agreement runs retroactively from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2027, Bailey said. The starting hourly wage for the lowest-paid jobs will increase from $15 to $16.25 and the highest-paid escalate from $17.50 to $19, he said. The new paid holidays will be Christmas Eve and, for those who work during summer school, Juneteenth. “In addition, part-timers used to get less paid holidays than full-timers, and now everyone gets the same holidays as the full-timers,” he said. The guaranteed raises for the first year will be 6% for most workers and 8% for select job classifications, Bailey said. The next two years will be tied to the Consumer Price Index. Those raises will be between 2% and 3.25%, and they will no no longer be tied to employee evaluations. For every five years of service in food service, employees will see a 25-cent hourly increase in non-compoundable seniority pay, Bailey said. The contract also calls for all the various cook positions and titles to be consolidated into one classification, he said. Insurance eligibility, which had kicked in when an employee worked more than six hours a day and more than 30 hours a week, will now start when the employee works at least 6 hours a day and at least 30 hours a week. Meeting with employees will be held to ensure they are properly classified as eligible or ineligible for insurance, Bailey said. “The contract gives workers the peace of mind that your raise is not dependent on your manager’s view of your work, that your personal days can be used for whatever you want them to be used for,” he said. Transportation contract District U-46 Transportation Union members voted to ratify a new agreement Aug. 13, which was then unanimously approved by the U-46 school board Aug. 19. The three-year deal runs from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2028. Negotiations began in January. About 80 hours of discussion led to a tentative deal being reached July 18, according to U-46 Deputy Superintendent of Operations Ann Williams. “The new contract offers a competitive compensation package for current staff. It also includes incentives to support recruitment efforts of new employees amidst the ongoing bus driver shortage,” Williams said. The starting pay for new bus drivers with no experience, which has not increased in five years, goes from $19.50 per hour to $23.75 when the new contract goes into effect next year. That’s competitive with neighboring school districts, Williams said. “Additionally, drivers with experience in student pupil transportation will receive additional credit on the salary schedule,” she said. The same scenario will apply to route assistants, Williams said, where the rate of pay for those with no experience will go from $13.85 per hour to $17.75 an hour. Union employees also will receive non-compounding longevity payments of 25 cents per hour for every five years of completed service, with a cap of $1.25 per hour after 25 years of service. Increases in the final year of the agreement will be aligned to the Consumer Price Index. All mechanics will have the opportunity to receive payments for Automotive Service Excellence certifications to a maximum of $1,750 per year. They also will receive a tool stipend of $500 per year. Starting wages for a lead mechanic will increase from $29.75 per hour to $32.24 under the new deal. Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.