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Strike (tentatively) over

It’s over. It’s over. The war is over between city and unionized workers. A news conference at 8:30 am this morning made it official.

After 35 days on strike, 30,000 inside and outside workers have agreed to go back to work, okaying a “framework” for a deal, the details of which have yet to be released.

Too late to save kids’ summer programs, but just in time hopefully to avert a full-blown public health and environmental crisis with garbage, soaked by a weekend of incessant rain, leaching untold contaminants into city parks used as temporary dump sites during the stoppage.

The first inkling a settlement was in the offing came around dinner time last night when Ann Dembinski, head of the city’s inside workers union, announced the possibility of a deal with the city in an automated telephone message to members.

Mark Ferguson, head of the outside workers union, had threatened to walk away from the negotiating table if a deal didn’t get done by midnight Sunday.

While observers in the media are crediting Ferguson’s deadline with providing the impetus for a settlement, the reality is the outside workers had no choice but to come around with the inside workers union, representing 24,000 of the 30,000 striking workers, including parks and rec staff, signaling its intentions to settle days ago.

The outside workers, already stinging from a public backlash over what most viewed as an ill-advised strike over sick leave benefits, could ill-afford to continue going it alone.

Ferguson’s brief comments at this morning’s press conference suggested as much. He noted that it was “always his union’s intention” to go back to work with its sister inside workers union.

Did Ferguson, handling his first strike as a union head, paint himself into a corner?

We won’t know for sure until details of the concessions given up by outside workers to reach a deal are made public. Check this space for updates throughout the day.

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