An overwhelming majority of Ontario's school support workers have voted in favour of strike action, backing their union's demand for negotiated contracts.

The 55,000 workers represented by CUPE Ontario were part of the government's Bill 115 that imposed contracts at the beginning of the school year.

But CUPE Ontario's Fred Hahn says so far all the attention has been on teachers.

He says the support workers are the backbone of schools and the union wants to make the importance of their work clear to the government.

Hahn says the workers don't want to go on strike. The vote was held to send a message to the government - that the union wants to get back to the bargaining table with local school boards.

Hahn says support workers have been ignored because of the attention on teachers.

The workers include janitors, secretaries, education assistants and lunchroom supervisors.