Vail Resorts boosts pay for patrollers in wake of Park City strike — but union workers must wait
North America’s largest resort operator offers raises for patrollers as Crested Butte lift mechanics threaten to strike and Breckenridge employees walk out to protest conditions at company housing
Jason Blevins/Colorado Sun
It’s been a busy couple weeks for Vail Resorts.
Unionized lift mechanics in Crested Butte Mountain authorized a strike. The company reported flat visits through Christmas and the New Year while an arctic blast certainly slowed traffic during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Skiers who visited Park City Mountain during the recent ski patroller strike were offered credits for next year’s passes as one of those skiers filed a class-action lawsuit over their “colossal disaster” of a vacation. Dozens of workers at Breckenridge called in sick to protest living conditions at company-owned housing.
The Wall Street Journal ran a cover story on Sunday, headlined “Vail Resorts Has an Epic Problem,” detailing the company’s recent challenges and depressed stock prices, with a sentence that traveled far and wide across resort industry inboxes this week:
“The driving force behind everything Vail does is the ‘guest experience,’ a phrase (Vail Resorts CEO Kirsten) Lynch repeated 11 times in the 30-minute interview.”
And following the strike settlement with about 200 Park City Mountain patrollers — that delivered an average wage increase of $4 an hour with veterans getting a $7.75 hourly bump — Vail Resorts announced immediate pay raises at six ski areas where patrollers mitigate avalanche hazards. But that immediate raise does not apply at any resorts with unionized ski patrollers, who first must negotiate an amended contract.
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