GUELPH, Ontario – Union workers ratified a new four-year contract with Cargill Meat Solutions just hours before a strike deadline. Approximately 800 Cargill Meat Solution workers threatened to go on strike after union workers at the company’s Dunlop Drive processing facility (a.k.a. Better Beef) rejected a previous contract offer.

Roughly 600 of the 780 union members voted 78 percent in favor of the new contract on Jan. 5, according to the Guelph Mercury. The new agreement includes a 30 cents-per-hour wage increase in the second and third years of the contract, and an increase of 35 cents per hour in the fourth year, a union spokesman told the Mercury.

The contract also has new flex-schedule provisions that improve the company's access to workers during spikes in production levels.