REGINA - About 1,600 civic workers ratified an agreement with the city yesterday to end a 26-day strike by members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees and Amalgamated Transit Union.
The full-scale civic strike – the first in Regina’s history – began on August 31 after the employer insisted workers had to accept a five per cent wage increase over three years and a lump sum payment of $500.
The unions – CUPE 21, CUPE and ATU 588 – had offered to settle for 6 per cent, but the city refused to budge.
Last Friday, the civic unions asked the city to agree to binding arbitration to break the bargaining impasse. The city refused, but offered to return to the bargaining table on Sunday.
The three-year tentative agreement, retroactive to 2004, was reached after eight hours of bargaining.
Although civic workers are back on the job today, details of the settlement agreement will not be released until the membership’s ratification meetings are held tonight.