Talks Break Down Between Waukegan School District, Teachers
(CBS) -- The Waukegan teachers strike drags on and is now approaching the two week mark.
Negotiations resumed at 3:30 Wednesday afternoon at union headquarters in Gurnee but have now broken down, according to a spokeswomen for the Illinois Federation of Teachers.
"There would be no point into caving into demands that our members on the line wouldn't accept," said Waukegan Teachers' Council President Kathy Schwarz in a statement.
Podcast
CBS 2's Jim Williams reports there's added pressure to get a deal done after an angry school board meeting Tuesday night.
In Diane Pincombe's three decades as a teacher, this is a first.
"I never in my wildest dreams ever thought I would be part of a strike," Pincombe said.
The strike is keeping 17,000 students at home, tossing around a ball, or stuck in daycare which is expensive.
"Preschool is free, bringing kids here is not really free," said Trista Barnes, the senior director of Patti-Cake Child Care.
But some teachers think they could be back in class soon. Negotiations over a salary increase went well past midnight after a heated school board meeting. Waukegan residents demanded the strike end immediately.
"Now we know the community is behind us and at the board meeting last night, they showed up in droves," said Pincombe.
