By Christine Des Garennes, The News-Gazette

After eight months of bargaining and no agreement to show for it, members of a local union are one step closer to a strike.

The Service Employees International Union Local 73, which represents close to 800 building and food service workers at the University of Illinois, has approved a strike authorization, a move that gives a union committee power to call a strike.

“Folks are eager to make it clear to management that we’re serious,” said Aaron Ammons, a building service worker at the UI.

With a vote approving a strike authorization, the union’s bargaining committee now has the authority to issue a 10-day strike notice to the university, “and then anytime after that we could go on strike if we so choose,” Ammons said.

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