The iconic Telluride Ski Resort in Colorado, USA, is set to shut its slopes this weekend. This drastic step comes after a labour dispute between the resort's ownership and its ski patrol union reached a deadlock, leading to an imminent strike.
Deadlock in Negotiations Triggers Strike Vote
The Telluride Professional Ski Patrol Association held a vote on Tuesday, where its members decided to go on strike starting Saturday. The union and resort management have been engaged in contract talks since June, but these negotiations failed to produce an agreement on fair wages. With no further discussions scheduled before the weekend, the resort announced it would not open on Saturday.
Resort owner Chuck Horning expressed his concern in a statement on Wednesday. He stated that the action by an organisation meant to help people would have a devastating impact on the local community. However, it remains unclear how long the closure might last. Resort officials indicated they are working on a contingency plan to potentially reopen even if the strike action continues.
Core Demand: Pay Parity with Regional Counterparts
The central issue fuelling the strike is pay. The ski patrollers are demanding wages that are more in line with what their peers earn at other major resorts in the Rocky Mountain region. The union has put forth specific proposals to bridge this gap.
They are asking for the starting hourly wage to be raised from the current $21 to $28. For the most experienced patrollers with over 30 years of service, they want pay to increase from the $30-$36 per hour range to a new scale of $39-$48.60 per hour.
A War of Words and a Wider Trend
While the resort's statement seemed to place the blame for the closure on the union, the patrollers' association fired back. Andy Dennis, the interim safety director and spokesperson for the union, accused owner Chuck Horning of bullying tactics. Dennis claimed that Horning could resolve the crisis immediately by offering a fair contract.
Ski patrollers often advocate for better compensation citing the high cost of living in picturesque mountain towns and the immense responsibility they carry for skier safety. Their duties are critical and varied, ranging from providing first aid to injured guests to performing controlled avalanche releases using explosives.
This season has already been challenging for Telluride, even before the strike threat. Unusually warm weather has limited operations, with only 20 out of 149 trails open so far. The labour action now compounds these difficulties.
The situation in Telluride is not an isolated incident. There is a growing movement towards unionisation among ski patrollers across the Rocky Mountains. Last year, a nearly two-week strike at Utah's Park City Mountain Resort led to significant disruptions, including closed runs and long lift queues. That strike concluded when Vail Resorts agreed to union demands, which included a $2-per-hour base pay increase and raises for senior patrollers.
