With contracts set to expire Friday at midnight, Boston University workers and the university administration settled on a tentative agreement Thursday night that will raise cost-of-living and maintain affordable health care, according to a press release Friday.
The agreement between the 32BJ Service Employees International Union and BU awaits ratification by its members. It would provide a 10 percent raise over four years and cover 700 custodians, mailroom operators, groundskeepers and skilled trades workers on campus.
“Today, we are proud to say that the hardworking men and women who make BU strong have a strong contract on the table,” said Roxana Rivera, district director of 32BJ SEIU, in the release. “In a city that is becoming increasingly unequal, this contract will keep 700 workers strongly in the middle class.”
The agreement will remain tentative until members ratify, 32BJ SEIU Spokesman Euegino Villasante said.
On Wednesday, workers voted to authorize strike if an agreement with BU was not achieved, The Daily Free Press reported on Oct. 30.
A majority of over 90 percent voted in favor of allowing the union bargaining committee to authorize strike, but as a result of reaching the agreement, BU workers will not strike, Villasante said.
The story will be updated as more information is released.
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