The biggest strike in Newfoundland's history is over, after Premier Roger Grimes and union leaders announced a tentative deal in the five-day-old public sector walkout.

Workers who showed up on the picket lines Friday morning were told by their union reps to go home and get dressed for work.

Tom Hanlon, president of the Newfoundland Association of Public Employees, said he was happy with the deal, and would recommend the strikers accept it. "We are quite pleased with it. We think we accomplished our objective," he said.

The deal was reached in face-to-face talks with Grimes and Finance Minister Joan Marie Aylward.

Hanlon said neither he nor CUPE negotiators would release details until their memberships had been briefed.

A vote on the deal will be held in about a week to 10 days, he said, after secondary issues are sorted out.

The main issue in the strike was money. The union wanted a 15-per-cent hike over three years and the province said it could offer 13 per cent.

Grimes said the tentative deal includes a pay raise, but didn't say how big.

The strike crippled the province, as the 19,000 strikers included snow plow drivers, who were on the picket lines rather than behind the wheel as a nasty winter storm hit the province.

Sections of the Trans-Canada Highway remain blocked east of St. John's, and some remote communities are running low on fuel and food.

The strike affected not only the transportation system, but health care, too. Hospitals were reduced to providing only emergency care.

The premier considered declaring a state of emergency after an elderly woman died while waiting for an ambulance to take her to hospital.