The Canadian Hearing Society and the union representing striking workers will enter into mediated talks starting Thursday.

The negotiations with mediator John Stout are set to run through Sunday.

The 227 workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees have been off the job for eight weeks and without a contract for four years.

Both sides have agreed to a communications blackout as long as negotiations continue.

Four days of mediated sessions at the beginning of April failed to produce a contract when CUPE rejected the CHS’s offer.

The workers, including 14 in Windsor, serve the deaf and hard of hearing community as counsellors, literacy instructors, audiologists and interpreter trainers.