A faculty strike that threatened to begin Monday at Cape Breton University has been averted.

The university’s faculty met with the board of governors on Friday. The two sides later announced they had come to a compromise on the main issue that was dividing them.

"Early Friday morning, the faculty association and the negotiating team for the CBU board of governors reached an agreement in principle, on Article 39 – layoff language – which has been the contentious issue in negotiations up to this point," said Dale Keefe, CBU interim president.

The agreement means there will not be a repeat of a bitter strike that marked the winter of 2000. It’s also come as a relief to many students and staff.

"This is good news,” said Andrew Reynolds of the CBU Faculty Association. “We've made a lot of progress, so we're optimistic about going into the weekend. Talks will continue. We're hopeful that by the end of the weekend, we'll have a tentative agreement."

Both sides agree that there is basically one more hurdle to be overcome before a tentative agreement can be reached. It has to do with faculty workload.

"There's really only one issue left, but it is a significant issue for us," said Reynolds.

“That won't be an issue at all,” Keefe said. “We're quite optimistic that in a matter of a few days, we will have a tentative agreement."

The tentative agreement would still need to be ratified by both faculty association membership and the university's board of governors. Last month, the board rejected the previous tentative deal and fired president David Wheeler.

"This should have been wrapped up back in October,” said Reynolds, “We thought we had it all wrapped up in November and December, so this shouldn't be difficult to do."

The two sides are expected to meet again throughout the weekend.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Ryan MacDonald.