Carleton University and its academic staff reached a three-year collective agreement in the early morning hours of Nov. 15, narrowly averting a strike that would have started later that day.

The new deal, ratified late last month by Carleton’s board of governors and the academic staff association, includes salary increases of 4 per cent in each of the first two years and 4.5 per cent in the third year, as well as provides for a $400 increase each year in the form of an “equity adjustment” and improved benefits.

The union also successfully negotiated agreement on a process to take teaching load below 2.5 credits, and increases to professional expenses up to $1,200 by year three.

Union president Janice Scammell said the negotiating team for CUASA was empowered by a 96 per cent vote of bargaining unit members to strike.