Tyson strike over

Workers vote to end the bitter, three-week-long diapute at the Alberta beef plant

A deal to end the bitter three-week strike at Tyson Foods Inc.'s Lakeside Packers beef plant in Alberta has been reached.

Workers voted on Friday, Nov. 4 to ratify the contract that includes wage increases, new rules on break times and a provision for no strikes or lockouts in the future.

The union leadership had said that it expected the deal to be ratified and that workers were looking forward to returning to work.

Hundreds of meat cutters and other workers walked off the job in October over working conditions and wages at the plant in Brooks, Alta., which slaughters about one-third of Canada's beef.

Many of the workers are new Canadians and complained of poor work conditions, including rules that prohibited them from taking bathroom or rest breaks during their shifts.

The plant in Brooks, about 185 km southeast of Calgary, employs about 2,400 workers and was not unionized for 20 years.

During the dispute that turned violent on several occasions, the company attempted to keep operating by bussing about half of the 2,000 union workers across the picket line.

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