ELY, MN (Northland's NewsCenter)---City employees in Ely voted Wednesday evening in favor of a new contract agreement after union workers filed an intent to strike nearly a month ago.
For nearly five hours Wednesday, a mediator worked, behind closed doors in city hall, with representatives from both sides.
The new contract will likely be passed at the next city council meeting on Tuesday.
The biggest stumbling block in negotiations has been employee contributions to health care coverage.
Ely currently pays for all city employee healthcare benefits.
With rising healthcare costs and major reductions in local government aid, city spokespeople say they have to find a way to balance the budget and are asking for employees to contribute by paying for some of their healthcare coverage in exchange for wage increases.
AFSCME Local 1490 union spokesperson Ida Rukavina says the terms of the contract will be in place for the next two years.
"The agreement, while we can't release the details of that at this point, we feel that both sides can live with it so we will be recommending this for settlement," Rukavina said.
There are 26 city employees in the Local 1490 union.
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