They’re not there yet, but Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association President Kate Lips said this week’s meetings with Vail Resorts and federal mediators “have resulted in large steps towards an agreement.”
The pace of contract negotiations is ramping up since ski patrol and mountain safety personnel walked off the job Dec. 27.
Union negotiators met with Vail for mediation again Jan. 3, the fourth meeting in five days.
“We've seen quite a bit of movement over the last couple days,” union business manager Quinn Graves told KPCW. “We've seen more movement in the last few days than we feel like we've seen over the past many months.”
The last contract governing more than 200 ski patrol and mountain safety staff expired in April 2024.
The patrollers and the resort previously indicated they had tentative agreement on education and training packages but not wages or benefits. No new agreements have been announced.
Vail Resorts Mountain Division President Bill Rock didn’t say who decides whether to accept or deny union requests.
But Rock, the former COO of Park City Mountain, told KPCW the company has consulted local leadership during negotiations. That includes Park City Mountain Vice President and COO Deirdra Walsh, Vice President of Mountain Operations Mike Lewis and Ski Patrol Director Andy VanHouten.
According to Rock, Lewis and VanHouten are on the company’s bargaining team.
“And just like the union, you know, the union has to go back to their membership with all the things they may or may not agree to, and they actually have to vote to ratify it,” Rock told KPCW Jan. 2. “We've got a team that works on this with a high level of dedication and commitment to getting a deal that supports Deirdra and Mike, but we do lean on Deirdra, Mike, Andy and the team here to help decide the direction that we may want to go in.”
Previously the two sides were hashing out details in the same room. Since federal mediators got involved, Graves said that “room” is now a video conference call.
She adds that because federal mediators are involved, many details about the negotiations are confidential.
Nate Thomas is a labor lawyer at Parsons, Behle & Latimer, which is not involved in the Park City Mountain strike or negotiations. He said mediation sessions are always unique to the particular labor dispute.
“More often than not, that mediator, what they're trying to do is find common ground and will often engage in kind of ‘shuttle diplomacy’ from one side to the other, carrying proposals back and forth and helping both sides understand the consequences and impacts of those proposals,” Thomas said on KPCW's “Local News Hour.” “A lot of times, trying to reframe those proposals to make them more understandable or more palatable by the other side.”
The union is speaking more optimistically about negotiations now than it was days ago, when it said it was “disappointed” in Vail’s counteroffers.
In addition to better benefits, the group wants its patrollers’ base wages raised from $21 to $23 to account for inflation. The company says it has paid ski patrol 50% more over the past four seasons, claiming that far outpaces inflation.
The next mediation sessions are Jan. 6 and Jan. 7.
Amid more negotiations and more snow, Park City Mountain continues to operate at reduced capacity.
The resort said it plans to open more terrain this weekend, projecting a total of 1,900 skiable acres or about 26% of the mountain’s terrain.
Jan. 3, the resort said the Timberline lift was only loading in one direction for half an hour to reduce crowding at the bottom of Iron Mountain.
Timberline is only loading in one directions towards Tombstone due to crowding at Iron Mountain.
— ParkCityMtnAlert (@PCMtnAlert) January 3, 2025
Skiers reported long lines throughout the week, and guests have been ducking ropes into closed terrain.
Vail’s stock rebounded 2% Jan. 3 after dropping about 6% Jan. 2.
Editor's note: Parsons, Behle & Latimer is a KPCW underwriter.
