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.

They broke down again with the zoo saying it needs hiring “flexibility” from stripping protection from layoff, due to contracting out, from any new staff with less than 11 years full-time service. The union countered that would protect only a tiny slice of its membership, and offered that staff get protection at the four-year mark.

McKenzie refused to tell reporters if the union has budged on that number. She represents more than 170 seasonal workers and 183 full-timers including zookeepers, veterinary technicians, mechanics and maintenance staff.

“At this point we are concerned about the welfare of the animals,” McKenzie said, noting that a veterinary technician was recently granted permission to cross the picket line to help save the lives of rare newborn clouded leopard clubs who were not being nursed by their mother.

She also raised the spectre of zoo managers who normally don’t care for animals putting themselves in jeopardy, either from not taking enough precautions against cross-species disease or from proximity to dangerous animals.

Last week Dr. Chris Dutton, the zoo’s chief veterinarian, told the Star the animals are doing “very well,” can continue to do so indefinitely while the zoo is closed, and that conservation programs continue just fine.

“People have been working anything from 12, 14, even up to 17-hour days to ensure that the animals receive the best possible health and welfare,” he said, adding the only major change was a reduction in transfer of animals between facilities.