Park City, Utah — We’ve received some breaking news, as the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association has gone on strike against Vail Resorts. The union will be picketing at the ski resort today. You can contribute to the strike fund here.
Park City Mountain Resort remains open, as nonunionized members are still working, and Vail Resorts brought in workers from other properties in case something like this happened. Deirdra Walsh, the VP & COO for Park City Mountain, issued the following statement:
“We are deeply disappointed the patrol union has walked away from mediation and chosen drastic action that attempts to disrupt mountain operations in the middle of the holiday season, given we invested significantly in patrol with their wages increasing more than 50% over past four seasons, and we have reached agreements on 24 of the 27 current contract terms. We want to reassure skiers and snowboarders, our employees, and this community that despite the union’s actions, Park City Mountain will remain open with safety as our top priority, and all planned terrain will be open thanks to patrol leaders from Park City Mountain and our other mountain resorts. In addition to the over 50% increase in wages over the past four seasons, the current Park City Mountain patrol proposal increases wages another 4% for the majority of patrollers and provides $1,600 per patroller for equipment. We remain committed to reaching an agreement.
BACKGROUND: The Park City Mountain ski patrol is a unionized group of employees, meaning their wages, benefits and terms of employment are governed by a contract negotiated between the company and the union’s representatives under the laws of the National Labor Relations Act. This union’s last contract expired in April. We were pleased with the progress in negotiations; we have reached tentative agreement with the union on 24 of the 27 contract articles that the union has reopened over the last 9 months. We have continued to meet on a regular basis, engaging in good faith. We began mediation, a process the union agreed was a reasonable next step, just yesterday – with another session that was scheduled for today before the union walked away.”
More details are to come on this developing story, but for now, here’s an official press release from PCPSPA regarding the strike.
Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association is on Strike
PARK CITY, UT – Today, the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association (PCPSPA) is on an Unfair Labor Practice strike. Instead of clocking in to work this morning, nearly 200 ski patrollers and mountain safety personnel hung up their jackets and formed a picket line in solidarity to amplify their fight for better wages and working conditions. Vail Resorts forced this work stoppage by bargaining in bad faith and repeatedly violating the National Labor Relations Act. Consistent with Vail Resort’s bad faith tactics, the company has refused to give a counteroffer on wages or benefits in the last 2 weeks.
Park City Mountain’s parent company, Vail Resorts, forced this walkout after nine months of earnest bargaining by the Union . The Company has made no reasonable movement towards an agreement on wages and benefits. On December 13th, 98.5% of the Union took part in a strike authorization vote with 100% of those participants voting in favor of a strike. The Union has been forced to file multiple Unfair Labor Practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board. The Company has doubled down on its anti-worker strategy by flying strikebreakers (scabs) to the resort..
The Union is encouraging the public to support locally-owned businesses to send a message to Vail. PCPSPA Business Manager Quinn Graves reiterated, “While we are on strike: don’t buy day tickets, don’t purchase food from the lodges, don’t use Vail-owned tune and rental shops, don’t stay at Vail Resorts owned lodging. We are asking our community to help us tell Vail Resorts to bargain in good faith. While the union strives for better wages and benefits, please support us and our amazing community by shopping at local businesses instead.”
PCPSPA is not alone in this fight for respectful wages and conditions in the ski industry: the strike comes as calls for good-faith bargaining with Vail Resorts are echoed by unionized ski patrollers at Keystone Ski Resort and lift maintenance personnel at Crested Butte Ski Resort. It is clear that the Company sees more value in anti-union tactics than investing in its workforce. However, it is the safety and experience of the skiing public, and the livelihoods of ski patrollers and other employees, that will bear the cost.
Members of the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association will be on the picket line at both the Canyons Village and Mountain Village of Park City Mountain until a contract is agreed upon. To stay updated, please see the Union’s social media, @pcskipatrolunion on Instagram and Facebook, and follow local media coverage.
If you would like to set up an interview, please find the business managers at either base area of the ski resort from 7am-5pm today and in the coming days. Alternatively, send inquiries to the email below.
Quinn Graves or Margaux Klingensmith
PCPSPA Business Managers
pcpspassociation@gmail.com
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The Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association is part of CWA Local 7781, The United Professional
Ski Patrols of America. Through Local 7781, The Communications Workers of America represent Ski
Patrollers at Park City, Utah; Solitude, Utah; Crested Butte, Colorado; Steamboat, Colorado; Telluride,
Colorado; Keystone, Colorado; Whitefish, Montana; Stevens Pass, Washington; and Lift Maintenance
departments at Park City, Utah and Crested Butte, Colorado. The CWA is committed to improving the
working conditions of Ski Patrollers and other mountain workers – who statistically have one of the most
dangerous jobs in the United States and Canada – and within the ski industry in general.
Image Credits: Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association, Park City Mountain Resort (James Niehues)
