After Park City strike, ski industry faces dwindling trust
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Ski patrollers picket outside Vail Resorts headquarters in Broomfield, Colorado, on Monday in solidarity with the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Union. Photo: RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images
As ski patrollers in Park City celebrate their successful strike, the ski industry is left to clean up a PR mess that could mean a broader loss of trust from customers and the ski towns resorts call home.
State of play: Patrollers at Park City Mountain Resort won raises averaging $4 an hour in a contract their union ratified late Wednesday after a 13-day strike brought chaos to the mountain during the busy holiday tourism season.
Catch up quick: Vail Resorts, PCMR's owner, deployed about 50 employees to keep the resort's ski patrol operational when some 200 unionized safety workers walked off the job Dec. 27 after nine months of negotiations.
- Still, the vast majority of lifts and runs remained closed despite abundant fresh powder.
- Skiers waited in hourslong lift lines that funnelled them into a reduced number of crowded, lower-level runs after paying up to $328 for a one-day ticket to enjoy "the largest ski resort in the US."
The latest: An Illinois skier who visited Park City during the holiday filed a class-action federal lawsuit Thursday on behalf of himself and "thousands" of guests, alleging Vail failed to warn customers that a strike was imminent and would affect their visit.
The other side: In response to Axios' query Thursday, Vail sent a prepared statement that read, "We recognize that there were impacts to the guest experience at Park City Mountain over the holidays as a result of the patrol union strike, and are actively working to address guest feedback."
- "Our patrollers who were on strike have returned, and we are expanding terrain in the coming days at Park City Mountain."
Point of friction: Ski patrollers sought a $2 per hour increase to their base wage of $21, plus higher pay for senior patrollers and better benefits.
- The cost of living in Park City is 66% higher than the national average, per the online compensation calculator Payscale.com. Zillow reports the median rent is $3,500 a month — 75% higher than the national median.
The intrigue: Patrollers saw solidarity against Vail ramp up as the strike wore on — and not only from disappointed customers.
- On Monday, Park City Council and mayor effectively sided with the patrollers in a statement that acknowledged "resort communities face significant livability challenges — and it is the workforce that all too often shoulders the weight of today's economic pressures."
- "It is Vail Resorts' responsibility as an essential employer to resolve this conflict," the statement read.
Meanwhile, some ski industry observers say Vail's reluctance to increase patroller pay was part of a larger pattern of greed in a business largely controlled by two companies in North America: Vail, which runs 42 ski resorts worldwide, and the smaller Alterra, which operates 12.
- "The daily onslaught of Park City lift line videos … is not doing the ski industry any favors. It makes the whole sport look bad," the ski website Lift Blog posted on X.
What they're saying: "It becomes very clear … that Vail Resorts views both its labor force and clientele with scorn and indifference," skier Patrick Redford wrote in the online magazine Defector.
- "While Vail Resorts is often the scapegoat for all that ails the increasingly consolidating resort industry, the tsunami of criticism overwhelming the company in the past week is unprecedented," outdoors reporter Jason Blevins noted in the Colorado Sun.
Zoom in: In a widely-shared video clip, financial analyst Jim Lebenthal blasted Vail on CNBC after visiting Park City during the strike.
- "If you want to run a travel and leisure company, you darn well better give the experience that you're advertising," he said, noting that Vail's stock dropped more than 6% about a week into the strike.
The bottom line: "When the *BUSINESS PRESS* ... unloads on you during a labor dispute, you've officially scored an own goal so epic it belongs in the PR Hall of Shame," private equity advisor and Park City property-owner Colin McGrady posted on LinkedIn.