* Contract passes by 85.7 percent

* 5-year deal freezes workers' wages for 2 years

* 2 pct increase in year 3; 2.5 pct raises in yrs 4 and 5

* Current workers to keep defined benefit pension plan

* New hires to join defined contribution plan

By John McCrank

TORONTO, July 6 (Reuters) - Workers at Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper voted in favor of a five-year labor contract that freezes wages for the next two years, reflecting the distressed state of the industry, the union said on Monday.

The paper's unionized employees voted 85.7 percent in favor of the pact, which the union and the paper tentatively agreed to just before a strike deadline last week.

"All of our members are sensitive to the fact that the media in general, and newspapers specifically, are going through difficult economic times, both because of the recession and because of changing habits in advertising and the way people receive their news," Brad Honywill, president of Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Local 87-M, told Reuters.