Toronto’s public libraries may open as early as Friday after a tentative agreement was reached between the board and the union Wednesday night.

“The union had some issues and I think we were able to find some common ground,” said Councillor Paul Ainslie, chair of the library board. “In the end both sides will be happy with what we reached for a settlement.”

The 2,300 library workers will vote Thursday. The workers, who have been without a contract since Dec. 31, have been on strike since March 19, closing all 98 branches in the city, the first such closure of all Toronto’s libraries since the city’s amalgamation in 1998.

Related: Library strike: Job security the big issue

“We are recommending the deal for ratification to our membership,” said Maureen O’Reilly, president of the library workers’ union.

It was a weekend of marathon labour negotiations as the city bargained with both the inside workers and the library.

CUPE local 4948 spokesperson Cim Nunn said the two sides reached a deal through “long, hard work.”

“They’d been meeting every day, they’d been making incremental progress, and they got to the finish line. It was just day after day of negotiating,” he said.

While neither side would comment on the details of the tentative deal due to a confidentiality agreement, job security was the primary issue as of last week. There are 440 librarians, but most library workers are customer service assistants or part-time pages who stock shelves.

The city is currently prevented from laying off permanent library employees in the event of outsourcing or technological improvements, and it wants to gain more flexibility by denying job security to many workers. “As the library board chair I want our side to accept it,” Ainslie said. “I want to have libraries opening by Friday.”

“The past 10 days have been difficult,” said Anne Marie Aikins, spokeswoman for the Toronto Public Library. “Our customers have really missed the library and we’re really anxious to have our staff back and resume full operation, which we’ll be able to do quickly.”

Stacks of books have been piling up beside locked book return slots at some libraries branches during the strike. The library didn’t have the staff to manage returns, Aikins said, so it froze all late fees and asked people to hold on to what they borrowed.

Yet some didn’t hear the message and lonely books accumulated outside the Sanderson, High Park and Main branches. After the public alerted management via Twitter, security rescued the books.

“Fortunately the weather’s been good and the books we’ve retrieved have been in good shape,” Aikins said.

Once the libraries reopen, people will be able to return the books or DVDs they’ve borrowed. “But it’s not like they’ll all be due the day we open,” Aikins said. “We appreciate it this happened unexpectedly and we’ll make provisions.”

Nunn said the terms of the library deal could affect the inside workers if there’s a return to the bargaining table. The 23,000 inside workers, whom Nunn also represents, voted on the city’s final offer Wednesday. If it’s rejected by any of the four bargaining units, the union hopes it will lead to a resumption of negotiations with that unit.

If that happened, the library deal could be used as a template.

With files from Emily Jackson

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