The largest union at Belfast aerospace company Shorts has today agreed to call off the strike it began last Wednesday.
Shop stewards from the Amicus union have agreed to back a proposal agreed between union leaders and the company during informal talks at the Labour Relations Agency yesterday.
Under the deal, there will be no redundancies before the end of March and a controversial new afternoon shift - replacing a night shift which carries a higher overtime premium - will be discussed as part of pay negotiations.
Over 4,000 members of Amicus and the TGWU went on all out strike last week in a dispute over pay and cost-cutting at what is Northern Ireland's largest manufacturing company.
Talks to end the strike by the smaller TGWU are continuing. An end to the strike by both unions will pave the way for further talks on pay and redundancies.
During the summer the workforce narrowly rejected a four-year pay deal that involved a wage freeze in the first year. Shorts parent company, Bombardier of Canada, warned afterwards that there would have to be 1,000 redundancies if the deal was not agreed - on top of 2,000 pay-offs the have come since the aviation industry hit the doldrums in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks.
Management at Shorts welcomed the decision of the Amicus to endorse the return to work agreement and said they hoped the TGWU would follow suit before the day was out. The ending of the strike would allow full negotiations to get under way with the unions immediately, they said.