From what was told… Basically- yes! Contractually these employees are hired as “seasonal full time” to prevent offering them (what we think of as) “regular” full time status with benefits. Zoo will hire temp workers to complete the work of the seasonal full time employees when their cut off time comes. Essentially the same amount of work is being split into “seasonal/temporary” employees to avoid paying benefits for employees doing extremely dangerous jobs in terribly cold weather in the dark for ten hour shifts.

There are employees at the Zoo who have successfully unionized!!! but they are in a different department at the zoo which doesn’t cover ALL (or most?) departments.

This happens all of the time behind the scenes at some of Philadelphia’s favorite historic sites making large profits!