Why is the Park City Mountain Resort ski patrol on strike? -Deseret News

Park City Mountain Resort reported 6 inches of new snow overnight, but will be missing many of its usual ski patrols and security guards who went on strike Friday morning during the busy holiday season.

Instead of going to work, nearly 200 members of the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association hung up their jackets and formed a picket line to step up their fight for better wages and working conditions. The association blames Vail Resorts for the strike, saying the company negotiated in bad faith and repeatedly violated the National Labor Relations Act.

The union says Vail Resorts, Park City’s parent company, has not taken reasonable steps toward an agreement on wages and benefits, including making a counteroffer during negotiations over the past two weeks. According to the union, patrol officers’ hourly pay of $21 is below that of other resorts.

The union encourages the public to help local businesses send a message to Vail.

“While we strike: Do not purchase day passes, do not purchase food at the lodges, do not use Vail-owned music and rental stores, do not stay in Vail Resorts-owned accommodations. We’re asking our community to help us get Vail Resorts to negotiate in good faith. As the union seeks better wages and benefits, please support us and our great community by shopping with local businesses instead,” said Quinn Graves, executive director of the union, in a statement.

What Vail says about the ski patrol strike

Deirdra Walsh, vice president and chief operating officer of Park City Mountain, said in a statement that the company was “deeply disappointed” that the patrol union abandoned arbitration and took drastic action to halt mountain operations in the middle of the holiday season disturbing, considering we have invested significantly in the patrols, whose wages have increased by more than 50% over the last four seasons, and we have reached agreements on 24 of the 27 current contract terms have achieved.”

In addition to pay increases over the past four years, the current Park City Mountain patrol proposal increases wages for the majority of patrol officers by an additional 4% and provides $1,600 per patrol officer for equipment, Walsh said, adding Vail be determined to reach an agreement.

Despite the strike, the resort remains open with patrol leaders from Park City Mountain and our other mountain resorts, she said.

Negotiations began after the ski patrol association’s contract expired on the last day of April. The possibility of a strike has been brewing for weeks. Picket demonstrations have been taking place regularly throughout Park City since late November.

The union announced Dec. 13 that it had authorized a strike following a contentious round of negotiations with Vail Resorts. According to the association, 98.5% of union members took part in a strike authorization vote that day, with 100% of participants voting in favor of a strike. The union says it was forced to file multiple unfair labor practice complaints with the National Labor Relations Board and that Vail “doubled down on its anti-worker strategy by sending strikebreakers (scabs) to the resort.”

Tense negotiations between the Park City Ski Patrol Association and Vail Resorts and the prospect of a strike are nothing new.

In January 2022, after a year of talks, the company and the union agreed to avert a work stoppage. Negotiations became more heated after patrol officers raised over $100,000 in a GoFundMe campaign and voted to authorize a strike.