Park City Mountain ski patrollers go on strike in what Vail Resorts calls ‘drastic action’

Park City Mountain ski patrollers officially went on strike early Friday, citing unfair labor practices and marking the latest chapter in the union’s ongoing contract negotiations with the resort’s owner, Vail Resorts.

Together at 7:30 a.m., members of the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association “hung up their jackets and walked out of the locker room” to form a picket line of roughly 200 patrollers and safety workers, the union announced Friday. The strike, they said, is meant to “amplify our fight” for a fair contract.

Union members gathered at four separate picketing locations near both the Canyons Village and Mountain Village base areas of the resort, holding signs and chanting as music played and passing cars beeped their horns in short bursts of support.

Even as considerable snow fell from above, they stood their ground.

“We love our jobs...,” one sign read. “A livable wage is not a big ask.”

“Despite the union’s actions Park City Mountain will remain open with safety as our top priority,” Deirdra Walsh, vice president and COO of Park City Mountain, said in a statement. She added that “all planned terrain will be open, thanks to patrol leaders from Park City Mountain and our other mountain resorts.”

According to Margaux Klingensmith, a business manager for the ski patrol union, the final push to initiate a strike came Thursday after Vail Resorts and union negotiators met with a mediator for contract discussions.

The resort, she said, did not present a wages and benefits proposal during the seven-hour negotiation.

“We were seeing a pattern of stalling and were concerned that mediation was going to be another step in that,” Klingensmith said from the picket line, where honks and cheers could be heard in the background. “We gave it a chance.”

Since April, when the prior contract expired, the union has asked for ski patrol members to start at $23 an hour rather than $21; for more experienced patrollers and safety workers to be paid for their skills; and for a benefits package that offers year-round coverage for the seasonal employees.

“Vail Resorts forced this work stoppage by bargaining in bad faith and repeatedly violating the National Labor Relations Act,” a news release from Communications Workers of America, which represents the Park City union, reads. “Consistent with Vail Resort’s bad faith tactics, the company has refused to give a counteroffer on wages or benefits in the last two weeks.”

According to Walsh’s statement, the resort has increased its patrol’s wages by 50% over the past four seasons. Its current proposal increases wages by another 4% and provides each patroller with $1,600 for equipment, she said.

Walsh also said Vail and the union had reached agreements on 24 of its 27 contract terms.

“We are deeply disappointed the patrol union has walked away from mediation” Walsh said, “and chosen drastic action that attempts to disrupt mountain operations in the middle of the holiday season.”

The union has had the ability to strike since Dec. 13, when 98.5% of its members voted to authorize the move with 100% approval.

Since then, the union has reported that Vail Resorts has brought in patrollers from other areas to take its patrollers’ places in the event of a strike — something on which the union has filed Unfair Labor Practice complaints with the National Labor Relations Board.

In an Instagram post, the union also argued the alleged practice “will put the safety of everyone here at risk.”

“I can tell you from personal experience, I’m in my sixth season patrolling here,” Klingensmith said, “and it is a massive resort, and I am still learning the terrain.”

Vail cited Walsh’s statement noting safety is the resort’s “top priority” and pointed to the “Commitment to Safety” section of its patrol website, which states that, if necessary, a patrol support team will be deployed. That support team consists of experienced patrollers from Park City Mountain and “our other mountain resorts,” all of whom the website states are provided with specialized training for any terrain area where they’re assigned.

“We are proud of this team’s deep skills, knowledge, and professionalism,” the website states. “They have developed these skills over many years — in some cases, decades — of patrol experience and certifications.”

While on strike, the union is asking members of the public to support local businesses rather than spend their money at Vail.

“Our negotiators have let the company know that they are open and available to meet at any time,” Klingensmith said. “We have been forced to do this. We have at every turn tried to avoid a strike, and I wish that I could say the company has done the same by bargaining in good faith.”

As of Friday afternoon, Klingensmith said the union’s negotiating team had since met with the mediator but Vail did not join.

“No progress has been made,” she said.

In a statement, Walsh said Vail “had planned for a full day of productive mediation” Friday before the strike.

“Our negotiating team needed to shift focus today to operational continuity. We remain committed to reaching an agreement,” she said.

— Tribune staff photographer Francisco Kjolseth contributed to this report.