Members of the Portland State University faculty have authorized union leaders to call a strike if they can't reach agreement with the school administration on a new contract.

In a statement released early Thursday, union leaders said the vote generated "massive turnout" and that 94 percent voted to authorize a strike.

State rules mean that PSU's roughly 1,200 full-time faculty members can't strike before April 3, a few days into the next academic term.

Voting opened Tuesday morning and closed at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Mary King, president of the PSU chapter of the American Association of University Professionals, this week told Oregonian education reporter Betsy Hammond that faculty members are unhappy about the direction the university is headed. She expected faculty members to tilt toward "yes" on their strike authorization vote.

A majority yes vote doesn't mean a strike will be called. Union leaders will make that decision later, after more mediated negotiating sessions.

King said the union was careful in deciding the timing of a possible strike, to ensure that spring term would already have started and student financial aid awards would have been made. Faculty members didn't want to interrupt the flow of aid to PSU's many students with significant financial need, King said.

-- The Oregonian