Members of United Auto Workers Local 2069 voted Saturday to ratify a new three-year contract with Volvo Trucks North America, ending a strike of more than six weeks and paving the way for employees to return to work

The contract was approved by 90 percent, according to the local union's President Lester Hancock. He was not sure how many people voted, but did say there was a large turnout.

"I'm just satisfied with the new contract," Hancock said. He described how the contract's health and safety language had been fixed.

Employees will return to work at the Dublin plant March 24, Hancock said.

"We just have a lot of wounds that we need to heal," he said.

"It's been a real long day," he added.

Contract negotiations between Volvo and the union first began in early January, but stalled Feb. 1 when UAW Local 2069 decided to strike.

Since then, the union's roughly 2,600 members have taken turns picketing outside the Dublin plant, often waving signs, chanting and soliciting honks from passing motorists.

As a result of the strike, production at the plant, Volvo's only heavy-duty truck plant in North America, halted for more than three weeks. Company executives have said it is now back to running on a limited basis.

In an early letter detailing the union's reasons for striking, UAW Local 2069 Hancock said members were upset by "unreasonable proposals that would erode the wages and benefits that we've fought so many years to achieve and protect."

Throughout the strike, union members have also said Volvo was looking to dismantle recall rights and health and safety protections.

Volvo, however, has denied assertions regarding recall rights and health and safety concerns and, in a letter announcing a return to bargaining, Per Carlsson, president and chief executive officer of Volvo Trucks North America, focused on three separate issues: "increased health care cost sharing," "the exceptionally high degree of manpower movement and higher-than-average absenteeism in the factory."

After weeks of trading barbs in media interviews and employee missives, negotiators with Volvo and the UAW returned to the bargaining table March 5. Six days later, Volvo announced it had reached a tentative agreement with the union on a three-year contract.

Strikers interviewed last week reacted to news of the agreement with tempered excitement, saying they looked forward to returning to work but wanted to make sure the agreement was a good one.

"If I have to, I'll stay out here longer," union member Melissa Bratton said Wednesday. But "I think everybody will be glad to be back."

Bratton, a Dublin resident who has worked at Volvo since 1999, said she was most concerned about health insurance, safety issues, retirement benefits and recall rights.

Union members heard details about the agreement in two three-hour meetings Saturday.