CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The union that represents staff at Columbia College in Chicago is well on its way to authorizing a strike.
70 percent of the vote is in and the United Staff of Columbia College said the votes are 95 percent in favor of a strike authorization.
The union tells the Columbia Chronicle that staff has worked without a contract for three years and that they're asking for a 3 percent pay raise and no increase in the cost of health insurance.
"We're negotiating for the years that have passed, and they are offering us no compensation increase for those years," Union president Craig Sigele told the Chronicle. "They said it was too administratively difficult to figure out the costs. And then we offered to give them a calculator."
The school says a strike would violate the no-strike clause that was in a contract extension that was signed several years ago.
