{"id":46891,"date":"2021-05-07T13:25:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-07T19:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ski-patrollers-at-breckenridge-vote-43-42-to-unionize\/"},"modified":"2021-05-07T19:25:00","modified_gmt":"2021-05-07T19:25:00","slug":"ski-patrollers-at-breckenridge-vote-43-42-to-unionize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ski-patrollers-at-breckenridge-vote-43-42-to-unionize\/","title":{"rendered":"Ski patrollers at Breckenridge vote 43-42 to unionize"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Telluride Ski Patrollers Erik Aura and Craig Prohaska prepare to fire \"Gun 3\u201d Avalauncher located on the top of Gold Hill toward targets across the basin at Palmyra Peak. Brett Schreckengost\/Special to The Colorado Sun
Telluride Ski Patrollers Erik Aura and Craig Prohaska prepare to fire \"Gun 3\u201d Avalauncher located on the top of Gold Hill toward targets across the basin at Palmyra Peak. Brett Schreckengost\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span>Brett Schreckengost\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Ski patrollers at Breckenridge have voted to unionize. By one vote.<\/p>\n

The 43-42 vote announced this week on the National Labor Relations Board website adds Breckenridge to a growing list of ski areas with unionized patrollers.<\/p>\n

Patrollers in Crested Butte, Steamboat, Telluride, Utah\u2019s Park City and Washington\u2019s Stevens Pass are part of the United Professional Ski Patrols of America, a chapter of the Communication Workers of America. Patrollers at the four Aspen Skiing Co. resorts in the Roaring Fork Valley are part of a private union.<\/p>\n

Patrollers at Montana\u2019s Big Sky resort last month approved unionization in a 69-21 vote. Last month, patrollers at Keystone rejected a unionization effort in a 42-36 vote.<\/p>\n

The increasing cost of living in and around ski towns \u2014 coupled with stagnant wages, year-round workloads and the increasingly corporate ski area ownership model in the rapidly consolidating resort industry \u2014 has buoyed recent efforts for unionization of ski patrollers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe company says they view us as professionals, and I believe that. But then decisions come around and (when) it\u2019s time to treat us like professionals, our concerns are superseded by other concerns,\u201d said Ryan Anderson, an eight-year patroller at Vail Resorts-owned Breckenridge ski area. \u201cIt feels like first responders always end up on the back burner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unions across the country have been in decline for many decades. Last year\u2019s 15.9 million workers represented by unions marked a record low for union membership in the country. That\u2019s about half of what it was in the early 1980s. Unions have not thrived in the resort industry either, with ski instructors at Beaver Creek not qualifying for a union vote in 2016 and patrollers at New Mexico\u2019s Taos ski area rejecting a union in a split 22-22 vote in 2015.<\/p>\n

As mega-corporations such as Amazon grow \u2014 including Vail Resorts, which owns 37 ski areas \u2014 labor champions point to the power of collective bargaining as a tool for protecting workers. Ski patrol unions in Telluride and Aspen-Snowmass have led to higher wages and better benefits. This year, Vail Resorts riled patrollers when it excluded the unionized workers from an end-of-season bonus program, saying the bonuses would require new contract negotiations.<\/p>\n

The bonus program was opened to patrollers at Crested Butte, Park City and Stevens Pass after they voted to adjust their contracts. And Vail Resorts this spring formed a ski patrol focus group that led the resort operator to almost double the gear allowance it provides to ski patrollers. The company and patrollers are working to improve their wages.<\/p>\n

In Breckenridge, \u201cthe vote was closer than we would have liked,\u201d said Anderson, who expressed surprise that 29 of the resort\u2019s 114 ski patrollers eligible to vote chose not to cast their ballot.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the current climate of corporate leadership in this country right now, I do believe it is going to be necessary for moves like this to happen,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are a professional patrol, but it has become harder and harder to sustain that. The buying power with our wages has dropped while the stresses of the workload have increased. It\u2019s becoming tough to keep people around. Changes need to be made to keep our departments on the cutting edge while working within the company structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vail Resorts, in a statement, said it was \u201cdisappointed\u201d with the outcome, noting that only 43 out of 114 patrollers voted for union representation. The company promised to bargain in good faith with union representatives.<\/p>\n

Breckenridge\u2019s patrol director Kevin Ahern said in a statement that unionization \u201cis the wrong choice.\u201d He spent 40 years at Breckenridge, including 20 years as under union representation from the mid-1980s until the resort\u2019s ski patrol union disbanded in 2004.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is troubling to me is that only about one-third of our patrollers voted for the union,\u201d said Ahern, who is retiring when Breckenridge closes this season. \u201cIt seems that nowhere close to a majority actually wanted union representation, but if the vote is certified, they will now be required to have a third party speak on their behalf. It\u2019s a disappointing process, but I know the leadership at Breck will do everything to support their employees regardless of the outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe Naunchik, a longtime patroller at Park City who works as a union representative for his fellow patrollers, laughed when he read Vail Resorts\u2019 focus on the narrow margin of victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think they would be saying that if they won by one?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Naunchik says Vail Resorts upping its all gear allowance for ski patrollers at several resorts \u201cis absolutely a direct result\u201d of unionized patroller negotiations at Stevens Pass, Crested Butte and Park City.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what we do, we force the company to raise the working conditions and wages for all their employees when we negotiate a contract that is better than what they currently offer,\u201d said Naunchik, who hopes contracts reached with patrollers at Park City, Stevens Pass, Crested Butte and now Breckenridge will eventually cover all Vail Resorts ski patrollers with increased wages, working conditions and gear allowances. \u201cI hope the company takes this recent vote as a message that they should work with us as partners. That\u2019s what these patrols want to have happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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