Campus United Auto Workers service employees rejected the College’s contract offer on Tuesday, organizing a strike vote at the public library last night as the College sought to dampen the blow.

While not releasing the tallies of the Tuesday vote, the union said that the results came back “overwhelmingly” against the proposed contract. The College concurred with that outcome.

Like OCOPE members, who are also embroiled in a contract standoff, UAW workers said that health care was in the front of their minds when they cast their votes Tuesday.

“I think [the contract] sets a dramatic change in healthcare,” one UAW employee said.

Kathy Fenderson, the union local president, said the workers’ stance was not surprising. “I expected them to vote it down,” she said.

But she was reticent in divulging her feelings about the contract or projecting the union’s next action. “We’re not sure what we’re going to do yet,” she said.

“People know what’s fair and what’s not. We just want the right thing done,” she said. “I don’t think the body thought we were treated fairly.”

The UAW contract expired on June 30. The membership voted to extend the current contract this week, the College claims.

The College offered the union a healthcare plan requiring a 10 percent out-of-pocket payment by members for medical care, an employee said. The formula is similar to the healthcare package that OCOPE has roundly criticized since it was in the College’s “final offer” in early August..

“We’re not greedy, we don’t want much,” said a UAW custodian. “We just want to afford to live.”