York University students begin the day with good news.  Negotiators for the striking teaching assistants and graduate assistants say they’ve reached a tentative deal to end their walkout which began nearly a month ago.

CUPE 3903 Chair Faiz Ahmed says it’s “a precedent setting agreement” that caps tuition fees at 2012 levels and compels the university to increase funding to offset any future increases.  He says “its an arrangement that no other university has and is going to put immediate pressure on other universities to think of similar types of structures.”

The offsetting of tuition fees is part of three “core demands” of the union, along with making sexual minorities “an employment equity group” and to increase summer funding.  Ahmed said the university has agreed to all of them.

York has also agreed to pay union members 100 percent back pay for the time on strike, the union says.

A ratification vote could be held as early as today. More details are on the York University website.