Monday’s negotiations failed to reach an agreement after the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association rejected Vail Resorts’ offer for a contract extension.
The union’s business manager, Patrick Murphy, told KPCW that the extension would have run through the end of this season. He said the extension included the $15/hr base pay and raise schedule previously offered by Vail. The union is negotiating for a $17/hr starting wage and has repeatedly rejected Vail’s $15/hr number. First-year patrollers at PCMR currently make $13.25/hr.
The union previously accepted a contract extension in late 2020, but allowed that to expire a few months later after little progress was made in subsequent bargaining sessions. The resort's ski patrollers have been working without a contract since January 2021.
PCMR and Vail did not provide comment in time for this report.
Also on Monday, Vail announced company-wide bonuses to all hourly resort employees, to be paid out at the end of the season. According to the announcement, full and part-time hourly employees will receive a $2/hr bonus for all hours worked between January 1st and the resort’s closing.
Vail extended the bonus as part of its offer to the union, but Murphy said the bonus is “contingent on our patrol accepting the terms of the contract extension and does not contain any wage increases for our patrol, and would only serve to further increase wage compression.”
Another bargaining session is scheduled for Wednesday.
In a statement issued Tuesday afternoon, the union said unless Vail offers a new contract on Wednesday, its options for progress have “dwindled greatly.”
98% of the union’s members voted to authorize a strike ahead of Monday’s contract negotiations.
