Park City patrollers’ union achieves similar pay, benefits to Aspen
Agreement will not affect Aspen patrollers' upcoming contract negotiations, union president says
Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association/Courtesy photo
After 10 months of negotiation, the Park City patrollers’ union came to an agreement with Vail Resorts, achieving an increase in pay and benefits.
The ratified contract came on the 12th day of its union strike, after Vail Resorts’ stock price declined by about 7%, reportedly costing the company almost $400 million. The patrollers returned to work on Thursday.
Luke DeMuth, president of the Aspen Professional Ski Patrol Association, said he doesn’t think the Park City strike and contract will have an effect on the Aspen union’s upcoming contract negotiations with SkiCo this spring.
“What it demonstrates is the importance of patrol and all mountain operations and the impact we have on the day-to-day operations of a ski area,” he said.
The Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association achieved almost a $2 increase in base pay for entry-level patrollers, raising the floor from $21 to nearly $23 per hour, according to a union press release. They addressed wage compression, securing a $4 average hourly raise for tenured patrollers and a $7.75 average hourly raise for snow safety specialists.
“We feel really, really good about the contract,” said Quinn Graves, business manager for the union.
They negotiated two weeks of paid parental leave for patrollers and “industry-leading” educational opportunities, focusing on patrollers’ work-life balance, according to the release.
“This whole demonstration, this negotiation process, this (Unfair Labor Practices) strike,” Graves said, “… just showed that unions work, and solidarity works, and labor organizing works.”
But she believes that they could have arrived at an agreement with Vail Resorts without striking had they been more willing to negotiate with the union.
The Park City union managed to achieve wages and benefits competitive with other ski resorts, according to Bradley Benson, Aspen Mountain representative for the Aspen patrollers’ union.
“I think it’s good. Basically it sounds like it catches them up to us,” Benson said.
Entry level Aspen patrollers make $24 per hour in the 2024/25 season.
DeMuth said the Park City contract is a big improvement in an industry historically underpaid and undervalued by corporate owners.
“The support from across the country for the patroller at Park City has been and continues to be incredible,” he said.
He added that the Park City union demonstrated their ability to bring about positive change through collective bargaining and solidarity.
Vail Resorts released a statement regarding the end of the Park City patrollers’ strike:
“We look forward to welcoming back the Park City Mountain patrollers in the coming days and moving forward together as one team,” wrote Bill Rock, president of Vail Resorts’ Mountain Division. “We apologize to our guests who were impacted by this strike and are incredibly grateful to our team who worked hard to keep the mountain open and operating safely over the past two weeks.”
Park City brought in patrollers from other Vail-owned resorts during the strike, according to Graves. They ran the mountain with 30 to 40 patrollers rather than with the normal 100 to 120, which, she was told by on-mountain guests, contributed to run closures, long lift lines, and other operating difficulties. She was striking and did not witness the on-mountain operations herself.
“We hope that we’ve set the tone that mountain workers are critical to the operations of ski areas,” she said. “And that safely operating in a mountain is very connected to a skilled and professional patrol.”
Aspen Skiing Company declined to comment about the end of the strike.
Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or email him at sstark-ragsdale@aspentimes.com.
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