'Today's a good day,' Unifor negotiator says as striking Crowns strike deal with government

The Saskatchewan government has struck a deal with six striking Crown corporations, the government announced Sunday. No details will be released until ratification.

SaskEnergy, SaskPower, SaskTel, Directwest, SecurTek and SaskWateremployees will begin returning to work Oct. 21 but operations will take a few days for things to normalize, the government said.

"I think today's a good day," said Chris MacDonald, lead negotiator forSaskTel and its subsidiaries, DirectWest and SecureTek.

"We're relieved tonight to know that we've got a contract that we can recommend to our members that in our view is a decent contract that beatsthe 5 per cent mandate by the Moegovernment."

The province declined to comment but Premier Scott Moe tweeted a message of thanks to negotiators on both sides.

The Unifor members at the province's Crown corporations had been on strike since Oct. 4. Since then, the employees had been picketing outside of government offices, events and work sites.

Unifor has asked for a three-year agreement with a two per cent wage increase each year, which Unifor says would match the rising cost of living. That request was previously rejected by the government.

The deals will be voted on and finalized by union members in the coming weeks.

"We're satisfied with where we got to," MacDonald said.