Wednesday June 14th, 2000

The strike that threatened to cause transport chaos at this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix has been averted.

Yesterday, transit maintenance workers voted to accept a contract agreement. The workers accepted a deal reached on Sunday with the Montreal transit authority, with 60 per cent voting in favour of the deal, which was achieved after intensive negotiations carried out with a Quebec-appointed conciliator. The acceptance of the deal ensures that the 2,000 workers won't walk off the job this weekend.

The workers have been without a contract since last January, and negotiations over the new contract had stalled due to the transit authority's plan to stop contributing to the workers' pension fund for three years. The deal sees the contributions continuing until December 31, 2002. An increase in salary of two per cent in the first year and three per cent in both the second and third years was also agreed.