Cafeteria workers at the U.S. Senate have ratified their first contract, securing a $20 per hour minimum wage and benefits like pension contributions and affordable platinum-level health insurance with coverage for family members.

The workers are organized with UNITE HERE Local 23. The union’s contract with the workers’ employer, Restaurant Associates, went into effect Tuesday and will remain in effect until Sept. 30, 2026.

The contract’s ratification follows months of bargaining and picketing after workers voted to unionize last fall. One of the pickets resulted in the arrests of 17 people. The union’s organizing drew support from several Democratic U.S. Senators, including Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, Amy Klobuchar, and Bernie Sanders.

Other rights and benefits outlined in the contract include 100% employer-funded dental and vision care, paid time off for voting, stronger protections against layoffs, and a formal grievance process to address contract violations by Restaurant Associates.

Paulo Pizarro, a banquet server, said he went from paying $120 per week for health insurance to $7 per week, with no deductible.

“It is such an incredible feeling to know that it was me and my coworkers that won this,” Pizarro said in the union’s press release announcing the contract. “It goes to show that so long as you stand together, you can do anything to improve your workplace conditions.

In the same press release, UNITE HERE Local 23 President Marlene Patrick-Cooper said the contract’s ratification is an example of “worker power in action.”

“This group of workers were willing to go so far as put their bodies on the line and take arrest to have their issues heard by some of the most powerful people in the world,” Patrick-Cooper said. “None of it would have happened if they hadn’t held their resolve as long as they did.”

Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio said in the announcement that Senate cafeteria workers will finally have a contract that “honors the dignity of work.” He noted that the workers served during the pandemic and Jan. 6 and that most of them could not afford the health insurance offered to them.

“This would not have happened without the dedication of each and every worker to use their voice and their collective bargaining power,” Brown said.

Restaurant Associates general manager Selin Temurcu did not immediately respond to a request for comment.