Cal State student teaching assistants, tutors and graders have passed the first step in their effort to unionize.

A majority of the more than 6,000 student workers in the California State University system have signed union cards, the California Public Employment Relations Board confirmed Wednesday.

"It's the first hurdle," said Roger Smith, labor relations specialist with the board, which enforces collective bargaining laws in the state.

The board did not release the number of people agreeing to unionize, but Smith said the number has to be at least 50 percent plus one.

Cal State student workers began organizing for a union about a year ago, said Xochitl Lopez, spokeswoman for the California Alliance of Academic Student Employees/United Auto Workers.

"We're looking forward to receiving the benefits that being represented by a union provides," Lopez said. "We're really excited to sit down and start bargaining."

Lopez declined to discuss specifics of what the student workers want in salary, raises or benefits. But they plan to elect a bargaining team and set priorities for negotiations, she said.

The Public Employment Relations Board had to verify that a majority of student employees had signed union cards before the process could move forward, Smith said. Cal State officials have 15 days to respond, he said.

Cal State officials said Wednesday that they have not yet received the written report from the board, but they do plan to respond in writing within the required time frame, said Colleen Bentley-Adler, Cal State spokeswoman.

"You have to determine who should be in the union," Bentley-Adler said. "We have to look at all of those different categories."

If Cal State does not support the union effort, either the university system or the student workers can request an investigation by the board, Smith said.

Teaching assistants and tutors at the University of California are unionized. UC student workers staged a one-day strike last fall during contentious negotiations.