Unionized city workers are beginning to leave the picket lines and return to work.
Union of Northern Workers (UNW) president Gayla Thunstrom and Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) North regional executive vice-president Lorraine Rousseau stated that a return to work agreement was finalized on Friday.
The UNW began voting on the collective agreement with the city the same day.
“PSAC and UNW will be holding ratification vote sessions today and members will have the opportunity to understand the changes to the new tentative collective agreement and return to work agreement prior to voting,” Thunstrom and Rousseau said in a joint statement.
The strike is not officially over, however, until a majority of nearly 200 unionized city workers vote in favour of the deal.
“The bargaining team is recommending the tentative collective agreement to members,” the union executives stated. “Once it has been ratified, the edits will be made and the finalized the collective agreement will be available to members on the UNW website.”
City councillors will also have to vote on a second and third reading of the collective agreement before it can be passed into bylaw. A special council meeting to vote was in recess as of publication deadline.
The terms of the collective agreement have not yet been made public.