The Toronto Zoo does not appear set to reopen any time soon, after contract talks between striking zoo staff and management of the city-owned attraction broke down.CUPE Local 1600 and the zoo’s management were pointing fingers at each other Saturday for the failure to reach a deal that would reopen the 50,000-animal showcase.Local 1600, representing more than 400 zoo staff who walked off the job May 11, met with city negotiators for about a half-hour Saturday morning.The zoo rejected an offer the union tabled Friday. It would have maintained a guarantee that the zoo keep a minimum 150 full-time permanent staff but relinquish job-security protections — from being laid off if their job was contracted out — for staff with less than four years’ service.Local 1600 president Christine McKenzie said the zoo demanded “a two-tiered plan that would strip (job-security) rights away from future generations of zoo employees.”“We told them emphatically we are not interested in a two-tier system that will basically kick that can down the road in terms of problems we’ve been citing — the city wanting leverage to downsize the zoo, downsize our workforce.“We are continuing with our strike and we have told the employer they can end this any time, but not at expense of our zoo or the people who have dedicated their lives to it.”Read more:Why bother re-opening Toronto Zoo?END The zoo, an internationally known research-and-breeding facility as well as a public attraction, has 186 permanent full-time staff and more than 170 seasonal employees. Those on strike include veterinarians, zookeepers and maintenance workers.Zoo management countered Saturday that its proposal would have maintained job-security provisions for current employees, while new hires would get the protection from contracting out only after they reached 11 years of service.“The Zoo operates with the benefit of what, in 2016, was a $12 m ...
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