Workers strike at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

About 800 building and food service workers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have gone on strike. The Champaign News-Gazette says the dispute involves pay and outsourcing issues. Service Employees International Union Local 73 has been negotiating with the university since last summer, and a federal mediator became involved in December. The workers clean classrooms, labs and residence halls; take out the trash; clean bathrooms; prepare food in university dining halls; cater special events; and deliver campus mail, among other tasks