Syracuse University and one of its largest unions have signed a new contract, according to the union’s secretary.

Union members voted on the contract Friday, the same day that their previous contract expired.

Local 200United represents more than 900 facilities workers, food service workers, library workers, and JMA Wireless Stadium staff. After weeks of bargaining and threats of a strike, union representatives and the university reached a tentative contract agreement in negotiations late Tuesday night.

After Tuesday’s tentative agreement, union leadership hosted information sessions on Wednesday and Thursday to convey the terms of the contract to members. In an all-day vote held on Friday at Grant Auditorium at Falk College, members voted 468-52 in favor of ratifying the new contract, according to Local 200United secretary Adema King.

The union and university last negotiated a contract in 2019. The previous contract expired at the end of June 2024. The union had been operating on a temporary contract which had already been extended twice, and which expired Friday, Sept. 6.

If the vote failed, union members would have considered striking, according to union representatives.

According to King, wage increases were the biggest priority for workers. After weeks of negotiations, the university agreed to meet members’ demands for a 10% first-year raise.

That 10% raise is retroactive to July 1, 2024, when the previous contract expired, according to King. Members will be compensated at their new wage for all hours worked since the contract expired.

King said the contract also includes raises of 3%, 2.75% and 3% in subsequent years. During the four-year contract, worker wages will increase 19.9%. King said many members had been “sitting on pins and needles” for the past few weeks and are happy to have secured the new contract.

“It feels incredible. Because I can tell you, a lot of my people didn’t want to go on strike,” King said. “We didn’t want to lose pay, we didn’t want any uncertainty.”

Union representatives said the 10% raise is more than the union has seen in decades.

The union won other gains for members in the new contract, such as securing Juneteenth as a holiday for workers.

In a statement sent to students, staff and faculty shortly after members ratified the contract, representatives of the university said they were pleased with the result of the vote.

“We extend our deepest appreciation to the members of both bargaining teams, who worked diligently over many months to successfully reach a new agreement,” the representatives said in a statement.

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Patrick McCarthy is a staff reporter at Central Current covering government and politics. A graduate of Syracuse University’s Maxwell and Newhouse Schools, McCarthy was born and raised in Syracuse and...