Boston City Council passes $57.2 million in union contracts, adopts cell phone ban resolution

BOSTON -- September 10, 2025, Boston City Council approves $57.2 million in union contracts and adopts a school cell phone ban resolution. The council voted 11-0 on all six collective bargaining dockets brought forward by Ways and Means Chair Brian Worrell, including a $55,899,118 supplemental appropriation for Boston Public Schools covering a teachers union contract with 2.5 percent and 2 percent annual wage increases through August 2027, and $1,285,033 for Boston Public Library workers under AFSCME Local 1526. A resolution filed by Councilors Henry Santana, Benjamin J. Weber, and Enrique J. Pepén supporting a bell-to-bell cell phone ban in BPS passed 11-0, with Santana citing data that one in 12 students spends more than two hours on phones during the school day. The council also pulled and passed 11-0 a resolution supporting Mayor Wu's defense of the Boston Trust Act against a federal demand to rescind it, with Council President Liz Breadon citing an ICE arrest of a parent outside Brighton High School that morning as evidence the issue is "a local issue." A hearing order to legalize triple-decker housing citywide was referred to the Planning, Development, and Transportation Committee after Breadon redirected it from Housing, and a rent stabilization ballot resolution was sent to committee following a formal objection by Councilor Edward M. Flynn.