{"id":30523,"date":"2023-11-22T09:45:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-22T16:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ski-patrollers-struggling-to-afford-colorado-resort-towns-look-to-unions-for-help\/"},"modified":"2023-11-22T16:45:00","modified_gmt":"2023-11-22T16:45:00","slug":"ski-patrollers-struggling-to-afford-colorado-resort-towns-look-to-unions-for-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ski-patrollers-struggling-to-afford-colorado-resort-towns-look-to-unions-for-help\/","title":{"rendered":"Ski patrollers, struggling to afford Colorado resort towns, look to unions for help"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Groomer
Groomer tracks visible on the slopes of Breckenridge as crews work to manage early-season snow on Nov. 30, 2021. (Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News)<\/span>Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When he graduated from college in 2022, he applied for a job at Eldora Mountain Resort west of Boulder. He got his Emergency Medical Technician license and started working full-time for the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the most amazing job I\u2019ve ever done,\u201d Miller, 23, said. \u201cEspecially the medical side of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the pay made it hard to balance life off the mountain. Earning $18 an hour to start, he couldn\u2019t afford rent in Nederland or Boulder, the two closest towns to the resort. So he got a space in Longmont, commuting over an hour to work each morning.<\/p>\n

While on the clock, the resort often felt understaffed, Miller said. He didn\u2019t qualify for overtime pay until he\u2019d worked at least 56 hours a week \u2013 a federal rule for seasonal businesses. The job also didn\u2019t come with health insurance during the first year, he said.<\/p>\n

Burnout set in quickly. Patrollers who had worked on the mountain for decades told him the high cost of living and the stresses of seasonal work were nothing new.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey hadn\u2019t really seen positive change,\u201d said Miller, who is returning as a patroller again this season. \u201cSo that was what got me thinking that unionization might be the best way forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, Miller and other patrollers at Eldora became the latest group to file a petition with federal regulators for a union election.<\/p>\n

They joined a swell of ski patrollers and lift mechanics who are organizing in hopes that collective bargaining can help them keep up with high housing and living costs in mountain communities. Patrols at Loveland Ski Area in Georgetown won their election earlier this year, and workers at Park City, Crested Butte, and Purgatory have also organized in recent years.<\/p>\n

If successful, Eldora workers would form a local chapter of the United Ski Patrols of America, which represents patrollers and lift mechanics across the West. USPA leaders said membership has doubled in the past seven years to 870 members.<\/p>\n

Pro-union patrollers said the growth is driven by patrollers\u2019 desires to create a more stable life. They do the dangerous, but vital, job keeping skiers safe during visits to Colorado\u2019s multibillion dollar ski industry. Their unique set of skills includes planting explosives on the mountainside to mitigate avalanche risk, loading injured skiers onto toboggans, and providing emergency medical care on ski slopes.<\/p>\n

The work can be thrilling, but also draining and traumatizing for patrollers. After an avalanche killed a backcountry skier near Breckenridge Ski Resort on New Year\u2019s Eve last year, resort patrollers there assisted in the recovery effort.<\/p>\n

Ryan Dineen, a ski patroller and avalanche tech at Breckenridge, who leads the resort\u2019s patroller union, hosted a debrief session for the staff after the search ended.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone came back just exhausted, I mean, absolutely spent,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then to try to find a way to integrate that experience into the rest of your life is another challenging piece.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many patrollers live in workforce housing, said Dineen, who has worked as a patroller at Breckenridge for 13 seasons and lives in a town-subsidized apartment. Others have long commutes, and gas money adds up quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re being told that we\u2019re being paid at the highest end of our industry while we\u2019re also being provided with links [by employers] toward food banks in the community and different social services,\u201d said Dineen.<\/p>\n

In many resort communities, average home prices rise above $1 million. Rents also shot up during the COVID-19 pandemic and have remained high.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy children go to subsidized day care,\u201d he said. \u201cWe live off subsidies, and that\u2019s a part of what I think is a flaw in this entire mountain industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Managers from Vail Resorts and Eldora declined an interview but said they already offer competitive pay and are trying to address issues like understaffing.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurnover is quite low,\u201d Eldora said in a statement. \u201cWe had more than 80 people show up for tryouts last spring, and more than 30 applied to work on patrol. We hired 6 new patrollers to join our paid patrol staff of 42, our largest on record.\u201d<\/p>\n

The resort also increased starting pay to $19 for new hires this year, with bumps to higher pay based on seniority and skill levels.<\/p>\n

Vail Resorts, which owns Breckenridge and operates 41 resorts across the world, spent more than $175 million to \u201cincrease wages, expand benefits, provide leadership development and support more affordable housing,\u201d according to a company statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose investments were the direct result of listening to our employees and taking action,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n

Colorado Ski Country USA, the state\u2019s largest industry group, said it respects the rights of employees to organize.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been bursts of organizing activity at the resorts over the years and some resorts have had union patrols for several years. Other resort unions have decertified. The economics at each resort are different,\u201d the association said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The current burst in organizing is likely tied to rising housing and living costs, as well as changes in attitudes toward work post-COVID-19 pandemic, said Erin Hatton, a labor researcher at the University of Buffalo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorkers are no longer accepting those old terms of, we\u2019ll pay you in fun or this is just something you would do anyway, or that you love,\u201d she said. \u201cThat can facilitate the kind of union organizing that you\u2019re seeing.\u201d<\/p>\n

While union membership nationally has remained flat in recent years, public support for unions has increased to its highest level since the 1960s. Nationwide strikes have dominated headlines this year and helped workers win big gains in contracts.<\/p>\n

Workers in seasonal positions or in jobs historically seen as short-term career options are taking notice and asking for more from their employers, Hatton said<\/p>\n

\u201cThose workers are now saying, \u2018Hang on, we\u2019re workers too and we demand more than we\u2019re getting,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Patrollers and lift operators at Breckenridge are entering their second season with a contract. Patroller Dineen said staff now have a max wage of $32 an hour, which is two dollars higher than it was before the union formed. But that\u2019s still not enough to afford living in town.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would hope that a union could potentially raise the bar as to what one can expect to make in a mountain community and create a pathway for a future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s important is that there\u2019s more dialogue with managers now, he said, and the resort has started putting funding toward affordable housing projects for workers. Those changes, Dineen said, will help keep workers coming back and skiers on the Mountain safe.<\/p>\n

Eldora workers are still unsure when their election will happen. A hearing to set the date was postponed to December, which means an election will likely take place in January, said Miller.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, managers have started to hold meetings urging patrollers to vote no on a union, he said. But he still plans to vote yes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t seem like the one-to-one relationship with our employer is really getting us results,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think collective bargaining is a more transparent and unified way to have a seat at the table.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Groomer tracks visible on the slopes of Breckenridge as crews work to manage early-season snow on Nov. 30, 2021. (Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News)Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News When he graduated from college in 2022, he applied for a job at Eldora Mountain Resort west of Boulder. He got his Emergency Medical Technician license and started working […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[378,120,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-30523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-alpine-skiing","tag-colorado","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30523"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=30523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}