If labor negotiations with school administrators continue to fail, union members representing the University of Illinois at Chicago's faculty said they would support the idea of going on strike, Crain's Chicago Business reported.

A vote by the Illinois Federation of Teachers and American Federation of Teachers Local 6456 authorized union leadership to call for a strike necessary. More than 95 percent of the teacher advocates voted in favor of this.

Last month the union said its members could strike soon if they don't get a new contract, the Associated Press reported.

"The impasse is on compensation and recognition of what the faculty's role is on campus," said John Shuler, spokesman for the University of Illinois at Chicago Union Faculty Local 6456.

The faculty union is currently attempting to negotiate two labor contracts - one for tenured faculty and another for non-tenure-track faculty - but has had no success since bargaining began 15 months ago.

The group represents about 800 educators. Since its inception in 2011, the union has up for tenured and non-tenure-track faculty at the University of Illinois' Chicago campus.

Shuler said the union is the first faculty union for a public research institute in Illinois. The union also wants to secure a minimum wage of $45,000 for non-tenure-track faculty and wants pay increases equal to that of faculty at the main campus of Urbana-Champaign.

"The Urbana faculty got 4.5 percent and 4.75 percent increases in salary, and we got offered 2.5 percent," Shuler said.

Crain's Chicago Business said a federal mediator was brought in recently to help both sides reach a compromise. Despite the vote, a strike is not set to take place, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.