Catherwood LibraryILR School

Graduate student workers in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, went on strike on Monday after 11 months of unsuccessful bargaining with the University of Illinois-Champaign. The university wants to give unilateral decision-making power to the president and has refused to bargain in good faith over wages and tuition-waivers, leading the Graduate Employees’ Organization to strike and file an unfair labor practice complaint with the NLRB. The major sticking point in negotiations is UIUC’s refusal to maintain existing language in the graduate student’s contract that ensures tuition waivers. Graduate workers are paid about $17,000 a year, and their tuition is $30,000, and the GEO argues that doing away with tuition waivers will eliminate accessible graduate education and diminish the quality of undergraduate education as well.