Wednesday marked day three of the graduate workers strike at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Gus Wood, co-president of the Graduate Employee Organization, or GEO, says the strike is gaining momentum and numbers.
A university spokesperson says 155 classes were canceled and 147 classes moved to alternate locations on Monday and Tuesday. The university says more than 160 grad workers participated in the strike on those days. Wood says the number of strikers is much higher than the figures reported by the university.
Tuition waivers are at the center of the contract dispute. The administration says it wants more control over which grad workers receive waivers in the future. Wood says the strike will continue until the university agrees to protect tuition waivers for all graduate employees.
"A lot of us are fighting for our ability to stay at this university and not take on $30,000 of tuition debt."
The GEO includes roughly 2,700 graduate student workers.
