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The union representing 22,000 cleaners in more than 1,500 New York City office buildings has authorized its bargaining committee to call a strike if no agreement with management can be reached.

Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union voted to authorize a possible strike. The union's current contract expires December 31.

Emma Nehnedobic of the Bronx was one of thousands of members who poured into the Sheraton on Thursday afternoon to cast her vote. “I’ve been picking up garbage and removing dust in these buildings for 12 years. I deserve a fair wage,” she said.

According to union officials, office cleaners make an average of $47,000 a year.

Union President Mike Fishman said his members are seeking a modest cost of living increase and to hold onto their benefits.

"What's at stake for our individual members is their future, their wages, their healthcare and their pension and what's going to happen to them in their life,” he said.

Members also said they won’t accept management's proposal for a two-tier wage structure that would pay new hires less than existing workers.

Electrician Nunzio Quinto marched down Broadway, from Herald Square to Union Square, in support of the cleaners and unions in general after the vote.

Quinto said it's time to fight back. "What do I tell my kid to go to school for when he goes to college, what should I tell him to become? A government worker? Should I tell him that, to become a teacher? Should I put him in college to get an office job - there aren’t too many of those. Nothing is safe today, nothing."

Howard Rothschild, president of the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations, said in a statement that “our commercial building service workers are the highest paid in the country-and we are not asking to change that but continued wage increases that ignore the grim realities facing our city and country can’t continue.”

Rothschild said for example, four years ago when they negotiated the last contract, building owners were making about $90 per square foot. Today it’s less that $50. He said in addition to lost revenue, expenses, such as taxes, have continued to go up.

The city's last office cleaners' strike was in 1996.

With the Associated Press