Pasengers board a YRT bus Sept. 25, 2008.Aaron Vincent Elkaim for The Globe and Mail
York Region will be spared a transit strike after the union representing some of the area's bus drivers and maintenance workers voted to accept a new contract.
On Friday, the union representing the workers announced they approved the deal 114 to 83.
The agreement gives them a 10.5 per cent raise over four years, four paid sick days annually, increased health benefits, some recognition of seniority and a signing bonus of $600 per worker.
Employees originally voted to reject the agreement then, on the eve of a transit strike, petitioned the union for a re-vote.
On Friday, Bob Kinnear, president of the the Amalgamated Transit Workers Local 113, which also represents employees on the TTC, wrote in a statement that the members had initially misunderstood parts of the agreement. He did not say what exactly they had misunderstood or how the problem came about.
The union members all work in York Region's southwestern division, primarily serving the city of Vaughan. They are employees of Veolia, a French-owned company that provides some of York's transit service on a contract.
Adrian Morrow