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DUNCAN, B.C. — Forestry workers on Vancouver Island have voted to ratify a collective agreement, ending a strike that kept 3,000 workers off the job for eight months.

The United Steelworkers Local 1-1937 says in a statement that members voted 81.9 per cent in favour of ratifying the agreement with Western Forest Products.

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Members of the union working for contractors represented by Forest Industrial Relations also ratified the agreement by 93 per cent.

Brian Butler, president of the union local, says members negotiated a contract that achieves many of its goals and did not grant the company concessions on pensions, job security and health and welfare benefits.

However he says the union did not achieve its goal of ending what members believe are “dangerous” alternate shifts.

Instead, he says the dispute process was improved by compelling the company to conduct trials of shift schedules proposed by the union, so that members can show alternative schedules are equally productive and also safer.