After narrowly averting a strike last week, unionized workers at 33 Cub stores in the Twin Cities overwhelmingly voted on Tuesday to ratify a two-year contract that includes pay raises by next spring.

The deal came together in the early morning hours this past Friday, just in time to avoid a strike scheduled to start at dawn for the Friday and Saturday ahead of Easter Sunday.

The contract calls for average raises of $2.50 to $3.50 an hour to go into effect in stages by spring 2024. Union members had sought raises of up to $4 an hour.

The new contract also allows union members to establish a safety committee, and some 300 part-time "retail specialists" won full-time status. Retail specialists under the previous contract started around $13 an hour, and pay ranged upward from there. Most employees are part time.

"Raises are even bigger for more than 300 retail specialists like me, who will be converted to classified assistants," said Sami Moll, a bargaining committee member and Chanhassen Cub deli employee, in a news release. "Some of us will be making $5 to $8 more an hour by this time next year, which is phenomenal."

The vote of about 3,000 United Food & Commercial Workers Local 663 members took place at 12 locations around the west metro, the union said. Members counted and tallied votes after polls closed at 5 p.m. Tuesday.

The union dropped charges of unfair labor practices against Providence, R.I.-based United Natural Foods Inc., which owns the 33 stores, as part of the agreement.

Cub has a total of 79 stores (corporate and franchise) in Minnesota and one store in Freeport, Ill.