Unifor says it has reached a tentative contract settlement with Canadian National Railway to avoid a lockout of 4,800 workers.

The Montreal-based railway had said it planned to lock out workers represented by Unifor unless the union agreed to binding arbitration to settle contract differences. However, Unifor president Jerry Dias had firmly rejected binding arbitration.

The union had announced plans to begin a strike vote next week after the failure of five months of negotiations.

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