Lunchroom workers union reaches pact with CPS
By ROSALIND ROSSI Education Reporter May 1, 2012 9:00PM
Updated: May 1, 2012 9:00PM
The union representing 3,200 school lunchroom workers became the first of seven Tuesday to reveal it had reached a contract agreement with the deficit-ridden Chicago Public Schools.
UNITE HERE Local 1 and CPS officials are expected on Thursday to announce a five-year agreement that the union contends will begin to “ensure Chicago’s kids will eat fresh food for years to come.’’
The union has been objecting that more than one-third of CPS elementary schools serve re-heated frozen food from “warming kitchens,’’ or what the union calls “kitchens without cooks.’’
Nine of 11 elementary schools completed under former Mayor Daley’s Modern Schools Across Chicago initiative serve warmed-up frozen food, rather than freshly cooked food. the union has charged.
The new agreement supports “cooking schools” and is expected to be unveiled at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, 3857 W. 111th St., according to a union media advisory.
