The second day of classes at the University of Minnesota will feature picket signs.

Talks between the university administration and AFSCME broke off about 11 p.m. Tuesday after a marathon day of bargaining.

As a result, clerical, technical and health care workers represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees are expected to go on strike beginning at 7 a.m. today.

This strike -- only the second one at the university in more than 60 years -- may have a broader effect than the 2003 clerical workers' strike. Because health care and technical workers are also involved, this strike may limit the number of non-emergency services provided by Boynton Health Service, the Community-University Health Care Center in the Phillips neighborhood, the university's dental clinic and its veterinary medical clinic.

The University of Minnesota Medical Center, formerly known as Fairview-University Medical Center, is not affected.

But the university insisted that classes will go on as planned and that essential health services will be provided.

In one area of potential conflict, administrators said they expect classes to be held on campus, but some instructors reportedly planned to move classes off campus despite the fact that they could be subject to discipline.

Roughly 3,100 workers -- about 17 percent of the 18,500 employees in the University of Minnesota system -- are covered by AFSCME contracts. It is unclear how many of those workers will strike and how many might cross picket lines and report for work.

In the end, the workers are going on strike because of dollars and cents.

"We tried different ways of packaging things," said Eliot Seide, director of AFSCME Council 5 and the union's lead negotiator. "They would not come up with a package that would allow our members to keep up with inflation."

The biggest sticking point in negotiations had been how anniversary-of-employment step raises are defined.

Union officials say step raises are for experience and are not meant to counteract cost-of-living increases.

Because of that, the union turned down a two-year contract proposal in which technical and clerical workers would receive 2.25 percent raises in each year. Under the proposal, health care workers would receive increases of 2.5 percent per year.

The university has said that its offer combined with the step increases is a raise that exceeds the rate of inflation.

Last week, the university reached a tentative settlement with the Teamsters that gives workers 3 percent increases, plus their step increases.

Seide would not discuss whether the university had sweetened its offer to the AFSCME workers, but said "the offer given to us was not as good as what the Teamsters received."

While last-minute negotiations took place, both sides spent Tuesday preparing for a strike.

AFSCME set up its strike headquarters across the street from campus at the University Baptist Church, and put together picket signs and organized strike-line leaders.