In our spotlight on Business Report tonight.

After working without a contract for more than a year.

NJIT union employees have voted to approve a strike authorization.

98% of the members of the United Council of Academics, which include educators and researchers at NJIT here in Newark, threatened to go on strike after demanding higher pay and better health benefits.

Correspondent Ted Goldberg has more on the likelihood of a strike that would be the first ever in the school's history.

Workers at NJIT are a step closer to going on strike.

The union representing adjuncts graduate workers and post-doctorate students voted 98% to authorize a strike this week after working without a contract for more than a year.

I feel disrespected, candidly, that they haven't been more willing to actually come to the table and talk with us about our demands.

The union, UCAN, has several demands in a new contract, mostly related to pay and health benefits.

Improved health care.

We don't have vision.

We don't have dental.

And those are both very important indicators of health.

Child care as well.

Better wages for postdocs, better wages for adjuncts.

It's honestly a sign of respect because we are doing a lot of the work.

We are doing a massive chunk of the work and the amounts that we are getting is frankly insulting.

On the heels of that strike authorization vote early yesterday, NJIT and the union then met with a state appointed mediator for 10 hours yesterday on campus.

It was a step in the right direction for sure.

The two parties sent us a joint statement which reads in part.

NJIT and the UCAN adjunct bargaining unit have come to an agreement on the essential economic terms of a successor collective negotiations agreement.

We will continue to work hard to resolve all other outstanding issues for the adjunct agreement and separately for the GSRE contract, which applies to graduate students and research employees.

We don't want to strike, but we will do it if we have to.

Like.

We have the authorization to.

But we don't like.

Not.

No one wants to.

I'm very prepared to strike.

I think that, you know, this strike authorization, it's not an empty threat.

Right.

We are all sort of feeling frustrated, feeling disrespected, and feeling like this was sort of the last resort.

But and it has left us no choice.

It was looking feeling a bit bleak at first, especially with the contract negotiations being stalled and all these issues coming up.

But now that people are learning more and hearing more and we're getting the word out and people are excited to be involved, it feels very optimistic.

And I'm hoping that we don't have to get to a strike.

I am hopeful that within the next few weeks before we reach the holiday break, a agreement could be made.

Donna Chiera leads AFT New Jersey, the parent union for UCAN and one of the unions that went on strike at Rutgers this past spring.

She says the strikes among Rutgers employees and RWJ nurses is sending a strong message and a warning.

It's saying to management that when you come to the table, you need to negotiate.

You can't just say no with no counselors.

You just can't say, we'll get back to you and wait 3 to 4 months.

It took NJIT over a year, almost a year and a half, I guess, to actually want to bargain in earnest with us and it took a strike authorization vote to get there.

The Rutgers strike was the first in the school's history and a strike at NJ.

It would also be the first work stoppage on the Newark campus, at any rate.

I'm Ted Goldberg.

NJ Spotlight News.

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