At last week’s council meeting, there was a request to ratify the latest collective agreement between the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) 1458 and the municipality of Jasper.

The agreement was accepted by 100 per cent of the 27 union members who attended a meeting on Friday, March 13, which was an accomplishment Lyn Goshawk, union president, said she was very happy about.

“We took the agreement to our members and we had 100 per cent ratification,” she said adding that after seven full days of negotiation with the town they had reached “a very good agreement.”

The union, which began negotiations with the council back in October 2008, had originally wanted a wage increase of five per cent, but were happy with the agreement of a 45 cents per hour increase across the board plus a 2.7 per cent increase this year, 3.35 next year and 3.1 per cent in 2011.

Goshawk said that although the union originally wanted five per cent for all three years, in October the agreement brought Jasper employees “right in line” with CUPE members in other towns.

“When you compare across the board, we’re right in line,” she said.

If council ratifies the agreement at the next meeting on March 31, employees can expect to see retroactive wages on their April pay cheques, according to Goshawk.