Teaching associates, graduate assistants, tutors and graders requested Thursday that the Cal State system recognize their union.

The California Alliance of Academic Student Employees/UAW filed a petition with the California Public Employment Relations Board calling for the university system to recognize it as the union for student employees.

In support, "an overwhelming majority" of the 5,300 student employees filed union authorization cards with the board in Los Angeles, union organizer Xochitl Lopez said.

She would not specify how many filed union cards.

"ASE unionization is a growing movement throughout the country. By unionizing, we will have more rights," said Lopez, a 29-year-old graduate student in theater at Cal State Sacramento. Lopez would not elaborate on what the union sought to improve, saying members would determine priorities based on a "variety of economic and noneconomic issues." Cal State system officials had not yet seen the request Thursday afternoon.

"Until we get it officially, I can't comment on something I haven't seen," spokeswoman Colleen Bentley-Alder said.

The UAW represents more than 16,000 student employees, including more than 11,000 at the University of California.