County workers will be represented by the Service Employees International Union, according to preliminary results of a union election.

More than 1,200 county workers voted in the two-day election. Around 4,500 Pima County employees are eligible for representation by the union.

The vote was 1,163 to 70 in favor of SEIU. There are an additional 48 provisional ballots that were not resolved Thursday night.

The union will not represent workers as a formal bargaining unit, because that is prohibited by state law. But in January, the Pima County Board of Supervisors approved a “meet and confer” law, which means the supervisors agreed to meet with a union representing county workers to receive advice on topics including wages, benefits and workplace policies.

"We had no avenue before today to get to the table with management on any kind of regular basis. We didn't have any kind of a collective voice. Now we do," said Dave Mitchell, the union's chapter president and a social worker for Pima County.

The union doesn't have the ability to strike.

Nearly 700 Pima County workers are dues-paying members of SEIU. They contribute 1.25 percent of their base pay to the union.

- Read more about it in tomorrow's Arizona Daily Star.