Toronto Zoo workers are tabling a new contract proposal and warning the longer the strike drags on the more danger exists for the 5,000 animals and the non-union staff caring for them. “We know they’re doing their best but they’re out of their league right now,” Christine McKenzie, a zookeeper and president of CUPE Local 1600, said Tuesday of the 85 to 100 non-union staff who are taking care of the huge menagerie since more than 400 union staff walked off the job May 11. McKenzie said union negotiators contacted a provincially appointed mediator to signal movement and will meet Wednesday with negotiators for the board of the city-owned zoo, their first contact since May 19. She would not reveal details of the “comprehensive new offer” to reporters summoned to a city hall news conference, saying she wants zoo management to see them before the public. Contract talks initially faltered over union demands that the zoo retain a contract provision guaranteeing the zoo have a minimum of 150 full-time staff members, and language around protections against contracting out.

Source: thestar June 06, 2017 16:06 UTC