Park City’s ski patrol union walked out days ago. Signs on the picket lines call it a ULP, or “unfair labor practice,” strike.
The Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association has filed four ULP charges against Vail Resorts with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) this month. So it’s not your ordinary strike, and that’s intentional, said union business manager Quinn Graves.
“One of the benefits of a ULP strike is that no one who is striking right now can be permanently replaced,” she told KPCW. In the United States, employers can permanently replace workers striking for other reasons.
Vail has temporarily replaced the strikers. The union says 30 to 35 employees have come from other resorts around the country. According to Vail Daily, that includes patrollers from the company’s flagship Colorado resort.
The union represents about 200 Park City patrollers and mountain safety staff. Once they walked out, according to Graves, only about 20 people were left in the mountain safety division.
That would mean just over 50 people are patrolling the largest resort in the United States.
Vail does not discuss staffing numbers, but it is hiring more. The day the strike began, Dec. 27, the resort posted temporary, part- and full-time safety and patrol positions online.
“We also have an obligation to our employees and to our guests to ensure that the resort remains staffed throughout the season, and which is why we have job postings opening right now,” Park City Mountain Vice President and COO Deirdra Walsh said.
Labor lawyer Matt Bruenig, who runs a left-wing think tank and formerly worked at the NLRB, doesn’t believe the job postings are illegal.
But if Park City Mountain hires more patrollers, it’s unclear how it will balance workers’ hours once the strikers return.
“They need to be reinstated to the same or similar positions as before,” Bruenig told KPCW. “Otherwise, you run into an issue where you are essentially being retaliated against for engaging in protected activity in the form of having your hours reduced, and in other contexts, that's always illegal.”
The union has alleged Vail already broke federal law in the ULPs it filed this month, which Walsh categorically denies.
The union said the resort unfairly delayed the process of renegotiating the ski patrol contract that expired in April. Then it said Vail made coercive statements or actions and illegally polled the staff.
“Before we went on strike, and after we authorized the strike, our managers were told by higher ups in the company that they had to call folks within ski patrol and mountain safety to see if they would be strike breakers, or ‘scabs,’ if we were to go on strike,” Graves said.
In a press release Dec. 28, the union announced it filed another ULP over an email Vail allegedly sent to striking employees threatening loss of housing, health care, locker room access and day care services. Graves said Vail has deactivated the ski passes of union members and their dependent family members.
“We are confident that we've always bargained in good faith, and we've complied with all labor laws,” Walsh said. “And we've demonstrated great respect for our patrollers, and [part] of that is respect the union's right to strike.”
According to the NLRB’s database, Vail has not filed an unfair labor practice charge against the union or any Park City employees as of Dec. 30.
Bruenig said it can take more than a year before the NLRB rules on charges.
Before the board sees them, its regional office in Denver will review the alleged ULPs for “merit.” Bruenig estimates 90% of cases get settled at that point.
“Somewhere in the process of the first few months, whenever it becomes clear that the region is going to take the position that this was an unfair labor practice, the employer will settle the case and do what needs to be done to remedy the unfair labor practice,” he said.
The two parties are expected to resume mediation Monday afternoon and Tuesday to hammer out a contract. There’s tentative agreement on education and training packages; what remains is wages.
The union wants patrollers’ base wages raised from $21 to $23 per hour to adjust for inflation. The resort said patrol wage increases have outpaced inflation over the past four seasons.
