Published: August 22, 2010

Cleaners and landscapers for the University of Miami voted on Saturday to authorize a strike when their contract expires Aug. 31 if their union's negotiating committee can't reach agreement on a new one.

The workers want raises and improved benefits from the university's Boston-based contractor, UNICCO.

Nearly 400 workers at both the Coral Gables campus and the Sylvester Cancer Center are represented by the Service Employees International Union, whose spokesman, Eugenio H. Villasante, said the authorization to strike vote came on a show of hands by some 250 members at the Bede Episcopal Chapel on the UM campus. The next bargaining session is scheduled for Monday.

In the spring of 2006, UM cleaners went out on strike for nine weeks, claiming unfair labor practices, substandard pay, lack of health benefits and workplace safety issues. The strike ended in the workers' first union contract, which is coming to an end.