Members of the Graduate Employee Student Organization voted 482-141 in favor of the plan, said union chairwoman Anita Seth, a teacher and graduate student in the history department.

Seth said the vote means that leaders of the graduate students' group will call a strike if Yale officials do not recognize their union. She said the union will again try to discuss the issue with Yale administrators.

"We've asked President (Richard) Levin five times in writing," Seth said. "We'll see what the university administration says. If there's no response, there will be a strike."

If there is a strike, members of the union will not teach classes, do lab work or go to classes. If they go on strike at the same time as other unions, they also will not enter buildings, such as libraries, that are part of the other strike.

Levin was out of town and unavailable for comment Wednesday night, but Yale Provost Susan Hockfield released a prepared statement.

"It is disappointing and disturbing that any group would attempt to disrupt the education of our students to advance its own ends," she said. "The university will make every effort to fulfill its commitment for educational programs even while some may seek to disrupt instruction."

Hockfield said graduate students at Yale have academic opportunities and financial support that are among the best in the country.

Any strike would likely be done with two other unions at Yale that are
considering whether to walk off the job after more than a year of fruitless contract talks, Seth said.

Locals 34 and 35 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees International Union represent about 4,000 clerical and technical workers. The unions decided this month not to extend their existing contracts, meaning they are eligible to strike starting March 1.

Yale has not recognized the graduate students' union because university officials maintain they are primarily students, not workers.

"GESO's been around for over a decade, and we have asked Yale many, many times over past two years ... for some kind of fair process to show support for the union, and they have not made even the slightest attempt to meet with us," Seth said.

Administrators have met with faculty to make plans to continue classes should the students strike.

"The number one priority of Yale is to educate students, and we will make sure that goes on, whether there is a strike or not," university spokeswoman Helaine Klasky said.

Altogether, Yale has about 2,300 graduate students, most of whom are pursuing Ph.D. degrees. Not all graduate students are members of the union. Only union members will be eligible to vote on a strike.

Most students spend 10 semesters at Yale and teach undergraduate sections for up to four semesters. Science students also work as lab assistants and do research projects.

Yale pays the students stipends of $15,000 to $25,000, depending on their length and areas of study, and provides free tuition, health care and other benefits.

The union has argued that the stipends are too low to support students
during years of study. Some students also seek to unionize to get better working conditions, smaller classes, training and a system to air grievances.

In 1996 a group of graduate students withheld undergraduate grades for two weeks to try to force the university into negotiations. The effort was abandoned after the students were threatened with the loss of their teaching positions. The students are not planning to try another grade strike, Seth said.

Yale has called for the union to hold a secret-ballot election according to the rules of the National Labor Relations Board. Yale could appeal the election results. Brown and Columbia are appealing elections by their graduate students to form unions.

"It does not seem like a viable process unless the administration would agree to acknowledge the results as binding," Seth said.

The graduate student organization wants the university to agree to certify the union through another method, such as getting a majority of students to sign union cards.