Inside workers at the City of Windsor have voted nearly 95 per cent in favour of a new agreement with the city.
"People seem to be very satisfied," said CUPE local 543 president Mark Vander Voort after the ratification meeting at the Caboto Club Monday night.
Vander Voort says roughly 1400 members are affected by the agreement.
He tells CTV News the contract is relatively similar to the deal recently inked by the city's outside workers.
The four-year pact features 1.25 per cent wage increases for each year of the contract. It also boasts strengthened bumping language and beefed-up job security for senior employees.
"At the end of this contract, if you've been employed with the corporation since 2001, you'll have job security,” he said. “Not wage security, but job security."
Mayor Drew Dilkens says council met in camera today -- and ratified the deal unanimously.
He acknowledged there were 'some gives and some takes' on both sides.
“I think it was a very fair and responsible deal,” Dilkens told CTV News. “Both in terms of our obligation to taxpayers, but also our obligation to employees, I think it satisfies both sides."
Vander Voort says it's very different from 2009, when tensions were high on both sides as workers staged a 101-day strike. He says there's no appetite for that today.
“I was very hopeful and very pleased with the level of decorum in the negotiations. It was very respectful. I think we all understand we're all here to do a job," he said.
Dilkens says this deal should secure labour peace for City of Windsor employees for a number of years.
"If you can buy labour peace and do it in a responsible way, that's the best way to go,” Dilkens said. “There have been no labour disruptions, things have continued.”
