[HALIFAX, NS] — A strike scheduled for Thursday by over 800 support workers at Dalhousie University has been averted. A tentative agreement was reached between the union representing the workers and the university early Wednesday. The union members then voted 92 per cent to accept the contract offer after being briefed on it over the lunch hour and in the evening on Wednesday.
A total of 648 votes were cast, with 595 agreeing to the deal. The contract includes annual wage increases of one, 3.5 and 1.75 per cent and is retroactive to July 1, 2011.
Joan Jessome, president of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union, said earlier Wednesday the union executive was pleased with the deal.
“Money was the issue and the pension was the issue, and we believe those issues are resolved and that the membership will accept it,” she said.
Jessome has said the workers were looking for wage hikes that matched those recently received by the faculty, librarians and counsellors in the Dalhousie Faculty Association. Those employees ratified a contract Monday that gave wage increases of 1.25 per cent in each of the first two years and a 1.75 per cent increase in the third year of the agreement.
