Ohio University skilled workers OK new pact

ATHENS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio University maintenance employees, groundskeepers and cooks have approved a new contract with the school just after a strike deadline passed.

The union for more than 600 skilled trade workers at the university has voted by a nearly 10-1 ratio to accept a three-year deal that union leaders say offers job security.

It also includes no raise in the first year, a 1 percent increase in the second year and a 1.75 percent hike in the third, and it increases the workers’ out-of-pocket insurance costs.

The vote came late Monday afternoon, about a half-hour after the time the union had threatened to strike when its old contract expired.