The longest work stoppage by journalists in Canadian history is finally coming to an end.

After a long, difficult day spent sequestered in a room at Montreal's Palais des congrès, 253 locked-out employees of the Journal de Montréal voted on Saturday night to accept the latest offer from their employer, Quebecor Media. The final vote began shortly before 8 p.m. When it was all over, 64.1 per cent of the workers had cast their ballots in favour of the deal. The employees had been locked out since Jan. 24, 2009.

The deal will see 62 of them return to work, plus one part-time position. The rest will be given a severance package worth a combined $20 million.

A previous offer, voted down on Oct. 12 by 89.3 per cent of the locked-out employees, would have seen only 50 of them return to work.

Many of the workers exiting the room expressed anger and disappointment at the result of the vote.

"It's a defeat for me, and for my friends," Jessica Nadeau said. "I just can't believe the way this ended. I've been fighting with everything I had. ... It's just ... I don't have the words right now.

"I wanted to keep fighting."

Other employees expressed their sadness at the results, but said they understood that people were tired after two years locked out of work.

"We all have our personal reasons for voting the way we did," Pascale Lévesque said. "For me, I didn't think this was the final round. It was just the fourth round. But I'm still quite young, you know."

Many of the workers were equally upset that the results of the vote leaked so quickly online. They were reportedly posted on Twitter before it was even announced to the workers in the closed-door session.

The fate of Rue Frontenac, the competing publication launched by some of the locked-out employees, remains uncertain. Nadeau said she and many others will fight to keep it up and running.

"Otherwise, I won't have a job," she said.