Flex-N-Gate employees have ended a weekend-long strike after 75% of them voted in favour of a new contract.
Unifor Local 195 President Gerry Farnham says the new agreement includes a $1 an hour pay raise for Flex-N-Gate employees over a three-year period. Employees will also get access to benefits sooner, waiting only 18 months instead of three years. More vacation time will be granted as well to long-time staff with 20 or more years of experience.
"Overall the collective agreement was ratified by the majority of membership at 75%, the committee is happy about that," says Farnham.
The union president says negotiations were necessary to work things out between both parties and reach a reasonable agreement.
"We lucked out out on the timing of the things because of the fact that the [facility] was down for the long weekend and did not create a work stoppage," he says.
The new deal comes after employees rejected the initial tentative agreement proposed on May 19, which resulted in a strike.