Woodland Park Zoo employees, members of the Join Craft Council (JCC) union coalition, are negotiating a strike over a new collective bargaining agreement that they hope will provide better wages and benefits.
According to a press release Monday from Teamsters Local Union 117, an affiliate of the JCC, workers expressed frustration with the zoo’s failure to value and retain experienced workers.
“We are losing important animal care experience, which directly impacts the standard of care we can provide to our animals,” said Allison Cloud, zookeeper and member of Teamsters 117. “The zoo is forcing us to choose between our livelihoods and our animals, a heartbreaking decision that no zookeeper ever wants to make.”
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Coalition members said low wages, high health care costs, poor morale and high staff turnover also threatened the zoo’s accreditation by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).
If a strike occurs, the 200-strong worker group will put together an emergency crew to care for the animals, the coalition said. The zoo would then have to be closed to the public.
“We are preparing contingency plans to ensure the continued welfare of the animals should we be forced to strike,” Janel Kempf, a learning coordinator at the zoo and a union representative for Teamsters 117, said in the press release.
“A strike is a last resort and none of us take this lightly, but the zoo keeps pushing us in this direction. If the zoo does not change course soon, we will have no choice but to stop our work,” she continued.
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According to the coalition, the JCC and the zoo have been negotiating for 10 months. A Woodland Park Zoo spokesperson told MyNorthwest on Tuesday that negotiations are continuing.
“The zoo continues to negotiate in good faith and comes to the negotiating table with good intentions,” the spokesperson said via email. “We share their values of fair wages and are committed to reaching an agreement.”
The next meeting between the zoo and the JCC is scheduled for Friday. Staff said in a public statement that if they do not accept the zoo’s proposal, they will make their position public “through direct, concerted action.”
Julia Dallas is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read her stories here. Follow Julia on X Here and send her an email here.
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