United Steelworkers Local 1-1937 announced Saturday that its members had ratified the tentative, five-year agreement by 81.9 per cent over two days of voting this week.

About 3,000 employees and contractors at Western Forest Products facilities in several Vancouver Island communities have been off the job since July 1.

B.C. Labour Minister Harry Bains says the pair will have "additional powers" to recommend a settlement in the eight-month dispute.

A pair of the province's most respected mediators pulled out of negotiations in the eight-month strike on Tuesday.

WFP says the mediators announced the decision in a letter Tuesday, "as they see no basis for a negotiated settlement at this time."

Western Forest Products workers with United Steelworkers Local 1-1937 have been on strike since July 1.

The crisis facing British Columbia's forest industry is intensifying as markets decline, mills shut and a strike involving 3,000 forestry workers enters its seventh month.

The B.C. government is getting a cool reception to a $5-million loan package being offered to contractors impacted by a seven-month forestry strike on Vancouver Island.

B.C. Labour Minister Harry Bains has asked the mediators tasked with finding an end to the six-month forestry strike on Vancouver Island to report to him.

Labour Minister Harry Bains has since met with both sides in the dispute, but is still expressing his hope that a deal can be reached through collective bargaining.