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Labor negotiations continued on Tuesday between Vail Resorts and the union representing ski patrollers at Utah’s Park City Mountain Resort, owned by Vail Resorts. This is the second day of negotiations this week amidst an ongoing labor strike. Around 200 Park City ski patrollers walked out of their locker room on December 27, during the resort’s peak holiday season, to form a picket line in their fight for higher wages and better working conditions.
“Negotiations have been dynamic and fluid, with things changing rapidly,” says Teddy Zerivitz, who’s on the executive board for Park City Mountain Resort’s ski patrol union. “We’re hopeful that we’ll be able to reach an agreement as soon as possible. We love our jobs, and we want to be back out there. Once we have a fair contract, our skis are in our cars and we’re ready to get back to work.”
Since last April, the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association, the labor organization representing ski patrollers at Park City Mountain Resort, has been asking the ski area’s parent company, Vail Resorts, for an increase from $21 to $23 an hour for new patrollers and higher compensation for more experienced patrollers, as well as enhanced benefits and educational opportunities. (Veteran patrollers currently earn 35 percent more than entry-level patrol, according to Vail Resorts.)
Vail Resorts agreed to 24 of the 27 contract items the union requested, but negotiations stalled. The patrol union filed complaints with the National Labor Relations Board, citing that Vail Resorts refused to bargain and engaged in coercive behavior. During the strike, the patrol union has urged locals and visitors not to spend money at Vail-owned properties. As of last week, shares of Vail Resorts, Inc. fell by 6 percent. A GoFundMe campaign has raised over $260,000 to support the ski patrollers.
In a letter written on January 6 by Park City Mountain Resort Chief Operating Officer Deirdra Walsh, she wrote, “First, please know; we care deeply about the work of our ski patrol; we have invested a lot in them and will continue to. Second, they are asking for much more than $2/hour [more]. In fact, on the day they went on strike, their demands equaled $7/hour more. Finally, you should know that we have come to the table with compelling offers.”
Over the holidays, the strike significantly impacted operations during one of Park City’s busiest weeks of the year. Typically, Park City Mountain Resort operates with around 100 ski patrollers working on any given day; currently, they’re managing with what one patroller estimated to be around 30 or 35 patrollers. Guests waited in long lift lines and skied crowded runs due to limited terrain.
“Park City or Vail Corporation didn’t notify any of us or any customers who had reservations that they were in negotiations,” says John Fuqua, a Park City local who recently moved with his family from Jackson Hole and works at a local hotel restaurant. “People spend tens of thousands of dollars to come here, and it ruined a lot of vacations. The lifts didn’t open until 10 or 11, and we sat in line for hours. This year has been different from past years and we’ll probably ski elsewhere next year.”
Currently, 26 of the resort’s 41 lifts are operating, and about a third of the mountain’s 350 trails are open. Walsh stated that the reduced terrain was due to lower-than-average snowfall and the patrol strike. This week, the mountain opened an additional 51 trails.
“I know the experience at the mountain over the peak holiday period was frustrating for our skiers and riders,” Walsh wrote. “This was not the holiday skiing and riding experience anyone wanted, and we know that. But what we are doing is opening the terrain we can safely open with the people we have each day during the strike.”
Throughout the strike, Vail Resorts has recruited ski patrollers from other Vail Resorts properties to replace the workers on strike. A ski patroller from another Vail-owned mountain told SKI that that has impacted patrol dynamics at their mountain: “We’re still opening all the terrain we can and operating with a full staff, but some of our supervisors have been called away to help at another mountain, which adds work for the rest of the team,” said the patroller, who asked not to be named.
Vail Resorts says that operations haven’t been impacted elsewhere. “We haven’t had any operational impacts at our other resorts related to the Patrol Support Team,” Sara Huey, a spokesperson for Vail Resorts, told SKI. “It’s been business as usual, and our other resorts have had great holiday seasons.”
On December 31, four ski patrol unions from Vail Resorts properties—including Breckenridge, Crested Butte, Keystone, and Park City—sent a letter addressed to Vail Resorts CEO Kirsten Lynch that cited: “Through the company’s tactics of pressuring coercing, and intimidating skilled patrol leaders to travel to Park City to join the ‘Patrol Support Team,’ you caused irreparable harm to both your patrol labor force and patrol management across all affected resorts. By removing local leadership from their resorts without notice, you failed to provide these patrols proper leadership at the height of the busiest time of the year.”
The letter added that a lack of local leadership has a “huge negative effect on morale, how our teams effectively manage risk for ourselves in the field, and keep a safe experience for the guests that visit our resorts.”
Though more ski patrols have unionized in recent years, no ski resort has seen a strike like this in decades. The United Mountain Workers, a union that first organized in 2003, now represents some 1,100 ski and bike patrollers, lift mechanics, and other resort staff from ski areas, including Park City, Big Sky, Loveland, Stevens Pass, and Steamboat. The union has more than doubled in size over the last six years. This week, Colorado’s Arapahoe Basin ski patrol will vote to decide on becoming part of the union.
As negotiations continue, the outcome of the Park City ski patrol strike could have ripple effects across the ski industry, influencing labor relations at resorts nationwide. For now, with busy holiday weekends like Martin Luther King Jr. Day on the horizon, Park City skiers must navigate reduced terrain and longer lines while the patrollers remain steadfast in their fight.
