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PCL workers ratify agreement

Pacific Coach Lines workers have ratified an agreement that will keep buses running through the 2010 Olympics.

Pacific Coach Lines workers have ratified an agreement that will keep buses running through the 2010 Olympics.

A news release issued Wednesday by the Canadian Autoworkers Local 114 said that union members voted overwhelmingly in favour of the new collective agreement. The 127 workers represented by the local voted 88 per cent in favour of the agreement at a series of meetings on Jan. 7 and 8.

The agreement averts a strike that could have seen Pacific Coach Lines suspend service during the Olympic Games. The union had served 72-hour strike notice and set a strike deadline of Jan. 2. The company responded by issuing a lockout notice.

Pacific Coach Lines, the only bus service with a desk at Vancouver International Airport, plans to run 26 shuttles a day between Whistler and Vancouver during the Games. It is already running 25.

Mediated negotiations went on for 30 hours before the two sides came to a tentative agreement on Dec. 31.