Negotiators In Waukegan Teachers Strike Won't Resume Talking Until Monday
(CBS) -- Negotiators will take the weekend off in the strike by teachers in Waukegan District 60, and Monday classes have been cancelled.
The two sides met with a federal mediator for seven hours Friday before breaking.
Waukegan Teachers Council spokesman Kenzo Shibata said there was progress. He said it was "slow but steady" but "less painful" than it was earlier in the week.
District 60 Chief Negotiator Tony Ficarelli saw it differently.
"We've been exchanging proposals, but the union has been intransigent in their demands for a three-year contract with 6 percent increases in salary and three years of single-health coverage," he said. "They won't get off it."
District 60 has increased its pay offer to 4 percent while the board is adamant that teachers should begin to share in the payment of health care premiums, he said.
Ficarelli called the union's position "entrenched."
The strike affects more than 17,000 students and 1,200 teachers at 23 schools. The teachers walked out Oct. 2.