WINDSOR -- CUPE education workers across Windsor-Essex have ratified a new three-year contract.

The tentative agreement reached Oct. 6 kept 55,000 educational workers across the province from hitting the picket line, and schools open.

CUPE Local 1358 reports its Educational Assistants voted 83 per cent in favour of the deal while its Early Childhood Educators and other professionals voted 92 per cent in support of the deal.

A total of 565 workers locally are covered by the newly ratified contract.

Local members voted at the Ciociaro Club in Windsor on Thursday evening.

The agreement needs to be ratified by CUPE members in a total of 109 bargaining units.

According to CUPE, the deal restores many of the cuts made to education services by the Doug Ford government earlier this year and points to the Local Priorities Fund and the retention of the existing sick leave plan as key inclusions.