Cafeteria Workers Storm Mayor’s Office

After cooking thousands of servings of sloppy joes, Cathy Rubano delivered a message to the mayor: She’s ​“so done” with frustration over talk about union concessions that ​“you could put a fork in me.”

Rubano is a school cook and a union steward of UNITE HERE Local 217, which represents 200 New Haven school cafeteria workers. She was one of about 55 union activists who gathered Tuesday afternoon to pay a visit to Mayor John DeStefano in his office.

Local 217 recently began negotiating a new contract to replace the one that just expired on June 30. The group delivered a petition, signed by nearly all the cafeteria workers, urging the mayor to maintain their benefits in the next labor pact. The mayor heard their complaints, pledged a ​“respectful” and ​“transparent” process, but warned that the city is facing unprecedented financial hardship.

The encounter provided what may be a glimpse of what’s to come, as the city negotiates eight labor contracts during a statewide budget crisis. (Click on the play arrow to watch.)

Rubano (pictured) showed up to the event in a white chef’s coat. She came to the event after a day’s work at Central Kitchen, where she prepared 13 racks of sloppy joes amounting to ​“thousands” of portions. The kitchen typically prepares between 1,200 and 1,400 meals per day.

Cafeteria workers are among the lowest-paid municipal workers. Full-time staff put in 180 days per year, seven hours per day. Others work part-time, for as little as 3.75 hours per day. The average yearly salary is between $16,000 and $17,000 per year, according to union officials.

Rubano, who’s been a cafeteria worker in the city for 19 years, said she is distraught by a recent proposal from the city that would cut longevity payments and eliminate 10 paid holidays.

“They’re making us feel so disrespected,” she said.

Rubano spoke while the group waited to meet with the mayor around 4:40 p.m. She said she raised four children in the New Haven Public School system. She served lunch to many kids at several city high schools, including to the mayor’s son Daniel when he was at Wilbur Cross.

“I fed his son,” she said.

She said she’s worried that the mayor will follow a pattern in other recent contracts and downgrade her medical plan. She said she was also miffed that three cooks were removed from the schools this year.

“I’m done. I’m so done you could put a fork in me,” she said.

A few minutes later, the mayor opened his door and invited the whole group into his office.

The group filed in, shaking the mayor’s hand one by one.

Mary Quiello (at right in photo), a union steward and Sound School cafeteria worker, handed DeStefano the petition and pleaded for fair treatment during negotiations.

“We have no intention of going backward,” she warned.

Then Rubano got the chance to speak directly to the city’s top boss.

She told the mayor that so far, her union contracts have given her good medical benefits.

“Now that I’m getting older, I really would like to see that medical plan perpetuated,” she said.

After hearing from several workers, DeStefano issued a brief response. He painted the struggle in a larger context of a statewide budget crisis that threatens to put an increasing strain on the city’s balance book.

“I know that you are not our teachers, or our firemen, or our policemen or our school administrators, meaning you are not one of our higher-compensated workforce,” the mayor said. He added that medical benefits have historically been a top priority for Local 217 and for the paraprofessionals, many of whom tend to be female, and some of whom are single heads of households.

“I’ve heard what you’ve had to say,” DeStefano said. But, he warned, ​“I’ve got to balance things.”

He said in his over two decades in City Hall, these are the worst financial times he has seen. Much of the city’s budget relies on state aid, he noted.

He closed by offering a fair, ​“respectful” and ​“transparent” negotiating process.

After the crowd left, DeStefano said he expects to see more of the same feedback.

“I actually think we’re going to hear a lot from our collective bargaining unions over the next couple of months,” DeStefano said. ​“They’re under a lot of pressure, but so is the city.”

“Frankly, the only way we’re going to respect the ability of the taxpayer to pay is” to ask workers to make sacrifices that executive management has already made, he argued. For example, the mayor’s secretaries and top staff no longer get longevity payments — bonuses for working with the city for more than 10 years. Those staff have forgone pay raises and have switched to a defined contribution pension plan, he said.

DeStefano said the city will look to cut longevity payments in all eight open contracts. The city has not yet issued proposals on medical benefits, he said, but he expects to ask unions to switch to a health care plan that’s cheaper for the city — as other unions, such as tradesmen and police, have recently done. Those unions also made concessions on pension plans. DeStefano said the city aims to make a health care proposal ​“later this month.”

Quiello, the union steward who works at the Sound School, did not welcome talk of further sacrifices. She said the union already made concessions last year, when the mayor asked for givebacks amid a budget crisis. The union gave up jobs in the Head Start program, allowing the school system to contract out jobs to save money, she said.

“They asked, we gave,” Quiello said, ​“and now they want to take more.”