Members of the union representing the Park City Ski Patrol authorized a strike over the weekend, potentially putting Park City Mountain’s holiday operations in jeopardy.
The Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association on Saturday announced that its voting membership unanimously authorized the union to declare a strike if it cannot reach a contract agreement with Vail Resorts, the owner of Park City Mountain. Nearly the entire unit, 98.5% of members, voted.
The union and the resort have been in talks since March, about a month before the union’s latest contract expired. Their last meeting, on Thursday, was their 23rd. The two sides are scheduled to meet again Monday and Wednesday.
If the two sides can’t come to an agreement, union business manager Margaux Klingensmith said a strike is possible. However, Klingensmith, who is entering her sixth season as a Park City Mountain patroller, said she doesn’t think anyone in the unit wants to take that measure.
“The strike authorization vote doesn’t necessarily mean we are going on strike,” she said. “But if the company forces us down that path, our unit is willing to stand together to secure a fair contract.”
The union has several goals for its next contract, though most pertain to pay. It is looking for a starting wage increase from $21 to $23 per hour. That, according to a press statement, is still less than the starting pay at neighboring Deer Valley Resort ($23.50) and at Eden’s Powder Mountain ($26). It also wants more experienced patrollers and mountain safety workers to be compensated for their skills and knowledge.
In addition, it wants a benefits package that potentially would cover patrollers year-round even though they are employed seasonally. Klingensmith said a survey of patrollers found most were not taking advantage of the health benefits program offered by Vail Resorts. The top reasons given, she said, were the difficulty of switching insurance plans every six months and trouble meeting two deductibles.
All together, Klingensmith said, the union would like a contract that provides enough stability that it wouldn’t have to undertake arduous negotiations every couple years.
“The feedback that we’ve been getting as this drags on has been that our unit is tired of having to do this every two years,” Klingensmith said. “And we were really hoping that this negotiation would be different.”
The first contract negotiations, which began in 2021, took more than a year and a half and 50 meetings before the two sides could reach an agreement. The union also received authorization to strike during those negotiations and built up a “solidarity fund” of at least $65,000 to compensate patrollers on the picket line. After the union averted a strike, that money was returned as promised, Klingensmith said.
A new GoFundMe site has been created to support patrollers in the event of a strike this time around. As of Monday morning, it had raised $6,925 out of its $50,000 goal.
For their part, representatives of Park City Mountain say they have already made concessions in terms of pay. The average wage for a seasonal patroller at the resort, according to a press release, is more than $25 per hour. And in terms of wage compression, the press release notes that Park City Mountain’s more experienced patrollers with specialized skills make an average of 35% more than entry level patrollers.
Over the past four years, the release notes, Park City Mountain has raised patrol wages more than 50%. If the union accepts its proposal, returning patrollers will get a 4% raise on average this season, plus a $1,600 equipment allowance. Inflation for the year ending in November was 2.7% according to Department of Labor data released Wednesday.
It’s a proposal, the release stated, that is “consistent with those accepted by all our other [Vail Resorts] patrols – both unionized and non-unionized.”
Yet the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association appears to want to carve its own path forward.
The last meeting between the two sides ended abruptly when union negotiators walked out, Dierdra Walsh, Park City Mountain’s vice president and chief operation officer, told the Park Record.
“We are deeply disappointed the union has decided to vote to authorize a strike after refusing to negotiate in good faith or discuss mediation on Thursday,” Walsh said in a statement emailed to The Salt Lake Tribune.
From the union’s perspective, though, Klingensmith said Vail Resorts hadn’t made any notable changes to its offer for the third straight meeting. So, the patrollers left resort representatives with the union’s latest offer and asked them to take the weekend to consider it.
“We left the negotiations after giving them our economic counter proposals with an explanation of the included cost of living adjustments,” Klingensmith said in a text, “and addressed our frustrations with how the process has been going. We told the company that we look forward to discussing the proposal, and hopefully their counter offer, on Monday.”
In what could be seen as a sign of urgency to close a deal, a Park City spokesperson confirmed that Bill Rock plans to attend the Monday evening session. Rock worked as Park City Mountain’s COO from 2015-2021 and now is president of Vail Resorts’ Mountain Division.
Walsh said skiers and snowboarders shouldn’t worry that the contract negotiations and potential strike will affect their holiday plans.
“We want to reassure our community, our employees, and our guests that Park City Mountain will remain open with safety as our top priority,” she said in a press statement, “regardless of the union’s actions.”
An email leaked to Instagram during negotiations in 2022 appeared to show an effort by Vail Resorts to attract temporary patrollers in the event of a strike. The company said it did not authorize the email and was not attempting to bring in replacement employees nor threatening to do so.
The National Labor Relations Board does not allow employers to threaten to replace workers before a strike begins.
Klingensmith asked patrollers from other resorts to support the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association’s contract efforts. She said gains made in their 2022 contract were soon reflected across the industry.
“We would request … that they choose not to come scab, and that they choose to support us,” she said, “because, as we saw after our last negotiations, wages increased across the industry. We obviously cannot claim that we were the reason for that, but that was a pattern that we saw. So, we hope that everyone who does this job is in this fight with us.”
Negotiations both Monday and Wednesday will begin about 5:30 p.m., Klingensmith said, after patrollers finish their day working on the mountain.
