Oct. 15, 2007 (Reuters) - Negotiators reached tentative contract deal on Monday to end a nearly three-month strike by hundreds of loggers and sawmill workers on Canada's Pacific coast.

Forest Industrial Relations, an industry bargaining group, said the agreement with the United Steelworkers union could bring some workers back on the job by October 22 if the deal is approved by the employees and FIR's members, the largest of which is Western Forest Products.

An estimated 4,500 workers employed by FIR's 31 member companies went on strike July 20, with work schedules being a major sticking point in the dispute.

The union also said the three-year contract will make it difficult for companies to unilaterally impose new work schedules, and it provides severance for workers who lose their jobs in partial mill shutdowns.

It has annual wage hikes of 2 percent, 3 percent and 2 percent, which will bring the basic hourly pay rate to C$24.92 by the end of the contract.

FIR and the union are recommending their members accept the contract.

"We recognize that the strike has been a difficult time for everyone, and we are pleased that the union has accepted our latest offer," FIR President Terry Lineker said in a written statement.

The Steelworkers union is still negotiating with International Forest Products, TimberWest Forest Corp and Island Timberlands, which bargain independently from FIR. Interfor is the largest of those companies with about 600 unionized employees.

No talks are scheduled in those negotiations, a union official said.

The agreement with FIR could also set the contract terms for about 3,000 workers who are employed by companies that are not members of the bargaining group but traditionally sign "me-too" contracts that use the same language and terms.

The strike did not involve workers in British Columbia's interior forest regions, whose contracts do not expire until 2009. The province produces half of Canada's softwood exports to the United States.

The companies had resisted union demands to remove government-imposed rules in the last contract that gave them more power to set schedule lengths and days of work, saying that was needed to remain competitive internationally.

SOURCE: Reuters