The Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association and two Colorado patrol unions say they have entered into arbitration with Vail Resorts.
It’s to resolve a dispute centering around a paid time off benefit called “recovery time off,” or RTO. Breckenridge, Colorado, patrollers negotiated for it in their contract with Vail last November, but unionized patrollers at the company’s other resorts don’t have it.
Summit Daily reported that RTO allows patrollers to plan ahead for time off to help them recuperate physically and mentally from the incidents they respond to. Breck patrollers have said it “could be a big win for the entire industry.”
“After they secured that in their contract, Vail Resorts rolled it out to all non-unionized ski patrols and did not give it to unionized ski patrols, including us,” said Allison Bagley, the Park City patrol union president. To her, it looks like a union-busting tactic.
Patrollers at Park City Mountain have a “parity clause” in their contract.
Their union says it requires Vail to extend the same wage and benefit increases to them that are extended to patrols across Utah and Colorado.
The patrol unions at Vail-owned Crested Butte Mountain Resort and Keystone Resort in Colorado have similar parity clauses.
Together the three unions filed for arbitration in April. That was after Park City’s talks with Vail began in December.
The contract between Park City patrollers and Vail expires in 2027. It was ratified in January 2025.
Through a spokesperson, Vail Resorts says the parties would need to reopen and amend that contract to negotiate recovery time off.
Bagley said that’s not the way the parity clause works.
“We have already negotiated for this benefit,” Bagley said. “It's basically saying if you roll it out to another patrol, we should automatically get it.”
When Vail offered to reopen negotiations, she said the company also wanted to extend Park City’s contract by three years until 2030.
Labor unions typically shun longer contracts since they lock down certain wage and benefit terms amid a changing economic landscape.
Vail says the parties will reach a solution through the arbitration process outlined in the contract.
According to the patrol unions’ social media, a hearing is set for September. A third-party arbitrator will decide the issue after that.
Vail Resorts’ EpicPromise foundation is a financial supporter of KPCW.
