A last minute deal has averted a strike by Ontario property assessors, including 20 staff in Owen Sound.
OPSEU local 266 President Jamie Stata says they were set to strike at midnight, but a tenative 2 year deal has been reached and the union executive is recommending acceptance.
The contract between the union and M-PAC which is municipally funded, calls for a wage freeze over the next two years.
The property assessors determine the value of land and properties in the province.
Stata says the employer is taking it’s tone of bargaining directly from Queens Park, where the government is imposing a 2 year freeze on salaries.
He says some members are upset that a 4 year deal had been on the table offering 6.5 percent in wage increases, but it was withdrawn when the province brought down it’s budget last month.
Strata says the union leadership had no stomach for a strike, and decided to settle on a short 2 year agreement with no wage hike.
He says they will then bargain hard in 2012 for a salary increase.
There are approximately 15 hundred property assessors in the province affected by the contract.
A ratification vote is planned for either this Friday, or next Monday