After over a year of failed negotiations for better pay and waived fees, UIC graduate workers are on what they call an indefinite strike.

1,600 graduate workers say the university, given how much they get paid and the fees they have to pay, is forcing some students to live at the poverty level.

Shravan Carpenter is a teaching assistant at UIC. He says the goal of the strike is to understand what the university fees are and at some point get rid of a large portion of them, since they can keep increasing each year.

Carpenter also mentions they want better appointment policies, which is referring to the hiring and rehiring process. Right now, these workers have no idea how that works. They said this could lead to things like favoritism and discrimination.

Carpenter is an international student. He explains, on top of low wages and high fees, there's extra fees he has to pay making it extremely hard to live in Chicago.

This week there was a 12-hour bargaining session, but that wasn’t enough. Grad workers say the strike will continue until a new contract is reached.