Strike Looms at Seton Hall

Nearly 225 office workers and support staff at Seton Hall University are threatening to strike if they do not get a new employment contract, union officials said yesterday.
University and union negotiators met with a federal mediator in the campus library in South Orange yesterday to try to settle the contract dispute, said Pat Hoffman, senior business representative for Local 153 of the Office and Professional Employees International Union..... The union's members, who serve as support staff in Seton Hall's administrative offices and libraries, earn an average salary of $27,000 a year, union officials said.
The 225 employees voted to allow their union to consider a strike last week, though the members would need to take a second vote to authorize a walkout. Their contract expired Friday, but was extended through today to allow the two sides to continue negotiating.