Workers vote 82 per cent to ratify agreement

July 14, 2008

OWEN SOUND Office and clerical workers at the Grey Bruce Health Unit have voted 82 per cent to ratify a new collective agreement and end a 10-week strike.

The Grey Bruce Board of Health is scheduled to vote today on the agreement. Details have not been released to the public.

OPSEU’s First Vice President/Treasurer Patty Rout was in Owen Sound to meet with the members after the conclusion of negotiations. “The members were fantastic! They stuck to their principles and taught us all a lesson in solidarity,” she said.

Last week’s tentative agreement came after a gruelling 15 hours of negotiations.

“We are ready to close the door on the strike and return to work,” Linda Owens, a member of the Local 276 bargaining team, told the Owen Sound Sun Times.

If the Board of Health ratifies the agreement, OPSEU members will do just that, after ten weeks on the picket line.