Vail Resorts, Park City ski patrol union reach tentative agreement

In Utah on Tuesday, the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association’s bargaining committee unanimously endorsed a tentative agreement with Vail Resorts and said it is set to vote on the new contract on Wednesday.

The agreement could end a ski patrol strike which entered its 13th day on Wednesday, limiting the amount of terrain the resort has been able to provide to guests.

The announcement was made at 11 p.m. Tuesday after two days of negotiations that the union said were more productive than any bargaining sessions that have taken place in the last 10 months.

---

---

“Everyone looks forward to restoring normal resort operations and moving forward together as one team,” the union said in a statement issued Tuesday night.

More than 25 bargaining sessions

Vail Resorts’ current contract with the Park City ski patrol union expired in March 2024. Since that time, the company and the union have engaged in more than 25 bargaining sessions in an effort to ratify the contract. The last time Vail Resorts and the Park City patrollers negotiated a new contract, in 2022, a strike was narrowly averted after more than 50 bargaining sessions.

---

---

After an unsuccessful bargaining session on Dec. 26, the ski patrollers went on strike Dec. 27.

The union said its goals for the new contract included establishing an entry-level base rate of $23 per hour; implementing a wage structure that properly rewards skilled and experienced patrollers and addresses wage compression; and enhancing benefits and educational opportunities for the 200 members of the park city patrollers’ union.

The union said it first suggested mediation in March, but things started getting serious in September when negotiators declared that they would like a new contract in place by the start of the ski season in November. That did not happen, and on Dec. 13, the Park City patrol union members unanimously passed a strike authorization vote.

Vail Resorts said Park City Mountain patrol wages have outpaced inflation by increasing more than 50% over the past four seasons, with the average wage amounting to more than $25 per hour for seasonal patrollers and $22.40 per hour for entry-level workers. Vail Resorts said experienced patrollers with specialized skills in Park City make 35% more on average than entry-level, and across the company’s 37 mountain resorts, there were nearly 3,000 applicants for just 300 open patrol roles this season.

Both parties agreed to meet on Dec. 26 with a mediator present. Vail Resorts said it was sticking to a proposal in which the majority of patrollers would see a 4% wage increase this season, plus a $1,600 cash stipend for equipment. The company said that was a proposal that aligned with agreements accepted by patrols at other mountain resorts, both unionized and non-unionized.

After a seven-hour negotiation session, the union said Vail Resorts refused to present a counteroffer on wages or benefits. The strike began the next day.

$300,000 raised

Multiple unfair labor charges were filed against Vail Resorts throughout the process, the union said, accusing the company of repeatedly violating the National Labor Relations Act.

In an effort to provide a supplemental income to the patrollers during the strike, the union raised more than $300,000 via GoFundme.com in a crowdfunding campaign that began Dec. 13.

Patrick Scholes with Truist Securities, one of the 11 equity analysts covering Vail Resorts, said the success of the fundraising campaign was concerning for the company.

“It appears to us the ski patrollers have the financial resources/backing to engage in an extended strike until their demands are met,” Scholes wrote in a note issued Monday.

Park City Mountain continued to remain open throughout the strike, with Vail Resorts sending in what it called a patrol support team, consisting of experienced patrollers from Park City Mountain and our other mountain resorts. But the terrain was extremely limited, with just 31% of the mountain open as of Tuesday.

Vail Mountain managers were among those sent to join the patrol support team. While the ski patrol unions in Breckenridge, Keystone and Crested Butte accused Vail Resorts of “pressuring, coercing and intimidating” those managers to join the support team, Vail Mountain spokesperson John Plack said the company was working with those who cannot participate in the assignment. Rumors about those employees facing termination for refusing to deploy to Park City were not true, Plack added.

Could Keystone be next?

The Keystone Ski Patrol union also is negotiating a contract with Vail Resorts presently and also is accusing Vail of unfair labor practices.

The Keystone patrollers began negotiating with Vail Resorts in September and said progress has been slow thus far.

“With only about 1/4 of the proposed contract agreed upon so far, the company holds the remainder of the contract in their review while the union waits for a response,” the Keystone patrollers said in a post published on Dec. 18.

The Keystone patrollers held a fundraiser Tuesday to bolster the Keystone Ski Patrol Union support fund.

The Keystone patrollers said Vail Resorts failed to provide merit increases to patrollers who earned a raise from last season, something that the union believes breaks the status-quo requirement while under negotiations.

In a letter issued Dec. 31, the Keystone union, along with the unions in Breckenridge and Crested Butte, said the negative attention the company has received as a result of the Park City situation “will lead to reputation damage that affects patronage, brand loyalty, and public trust.”

On Tuesday, as the Park City strike entered its 12th day, the Today Show on NBC ran a segment on Vail Resorts, with anchor Savannah Guthrie describing the situation as “a mess.”

NBC reporter Liz Kreutz said the trouble might not end with a contract resolution, as some guests were hoping for refunds on their trips to Park City this winter.