The District of North Vancouver reached a deal with its civic workers late Thursday night.

The terms of the deal will not be released until after the union representing 800 civic and recreation workers votes Saturday.

It's the fifth municipal agreement in the Lower Mainland in the last week and a half, but there's no sign of progress in the strike of 6,000 Vancouver civic workers.
  
Three unions are involved in the Vancouver strike.

Library workers, represented by CUPE Local 391, have resumed talks, with negotiations expected to go into next week. No talks are planned between the city and the other two unions, Local 15 representing inside workers and Local 1004 representing outside workers.
 
CUPE Local 1004 president Mike Jackson said talks have broken down.

"[Local] 15 as well as 1004 have not had counter-proposals given to us from the employer, so this is part of the frustrating fact that we can't get labour peace due to the employer's sheer negligence," said Jackson on Friday morning.

But city spokesman Jerry Dobrovolny disagrees. He says the benefit package the union is asking for is just too expensive.

"We've been at this now for 11 months," said Dobrovolny. "The city's put forward five offers and the last offer that the city put forward was the full extent of our bargaining mandate at the time. And so we were clear that that was the full extent of the money that was available."

Deal finalized in Burnaby

Meanwhile, the civic agreement in Burnaby was finalized Thursday night. Union members voted 93 per cent in favour of the deal involving the city, Burnaby Public Library and CUPE Local 23. 

"Bargaining took a turn for the better as soon as we had the ability to talk directly with the employer," said local president Rich Kotar about reaching the tentative deal.

"Last Monday, the GVRD was there, but they were pretty much there to observe. They weren't part of the discussions. And at the end of a 13-hour bargaining session, we had a tentative deal that we were able to take to our members."

More negotiations ahead

The City of North Vancouver, Langley and White Rock are still in negotiations with their civic unions. Bargaining has yet to begin in New Westminster, Coquitlam, Township of Langley, Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge.

Outside workers in Vancouver and all unionized staff in the District of North Vancouver first walked off the job on July 20, forcing both municipalities to suspend some services, including residential garbage collection.

Vancouver's inside workers walked off the job on July 23, affecting services such as city-run day-care facilities, building inspections and parking bylaw enforcement.

Library workers in Vancouver walked off July 26.