St. John's buses to roll again on Monday

A nearly three-month old strike by public transportation workers in St. John's has ended, witha large majority ofunion membersvoting Thursday evening to accept a tentative deal reached the day before.

Thebus drivers and other Metrobus workers voted 79 per cent to accept the offer.

Metrobus said thatif the tentativeagreement wasratified, buses willreturn to service Monday, January 31st.

Back in November, the company wanted new employees to pay half the cost of health benefits.

Union leader Paul Churchill says the union conceded on that point.

"We were compensated in a financial package to be able to accept this 50/50," he said

The workers accepted a 20.5 per cent raise over five years.

About 100 workerswent on strikein earlyNovember.

The major obstacle in the disputewas a demand from the company that new employees pay a bigger share of the cost of health care benefits.