In the past, negotiations between the city of Montreal and its blue collar union have been sometimes rocky and confrontational.

But now the city will have labour peace for the next five years.

It's reached a deal with its blue collars.

The tentative agreement is good until 2017. The city is hailing the deal as historic, coming before the expiration of the current contract and respecting their budget limits.

Executive committee chairman Michael Applebaum said it respects their budget limits.

"We want to reduce the pension funds, our contribution, by $50-million over the next three years. With the agreement that we presently have with the blue collar workers, they have done their part to respect our objective of the $50-million," Applebaum said.

But Applebaum won't say how they did it, insisting they didn't cut into any services. The deal also calls for salary increases. Applebaum said details will come once it's ratified.

"This agreement now has to be presented to the members of the union for final approval."

That should be done over the next few weeks.

Photo: Shuyee Lee/CJAD Archives