Paighten HarkinsPark City Mountain’s ski patrol union has filed for arbitration against Vail Resorts, alleging the company won’t provide its union members the same benefits Vail offered nonunion ski patrol employees in Colorado.
The Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association specifically accused Vail Resorts, Park City Mountain’s parent company, of refusing to give union members recovery time off.
Full-time seasonal ski patrollers can use that type of paid time off, which Vail calls “winter recovery time,” for mental health, vacation or to rehab physical injuries, according to the union’s release.
Vail has said the benefit allows full-time, seasonal ski patrollers to plan time off prior to the winter, “in recognition of their unique role as first responders.”
A Vail spokesperson said in a statement that the company offered to reopen contract negotiations and bargain over an amendment for recovery time, but the union declined.
“When the union is seeking new terms, that requires a negotiation and an amendment to their agreement,” the spokesperson said.
Instead, the ski patrol union is asking for arbitration, a binding out-of-court process to solve disputes, after “numerous meetings with management,” its statement read.
The union asserts that Vail’s offer to reopen negotiations was made in exchange for a multiyear contract extension, which they said would have hindered their ability to bargain over needs in the future, “as our workplace and economic environment is constantly changing.”
The current contract would expire next April.
The union added that the contract already includes a “parity agreement,” which they argue should allow them to receive this benefit.
“It is deeply disappointing to our unit that Vail is asking us to beg for a benefit that they are not only freely giving to other non-unionized patrols but a benefit that we have already negotiated for,” the union said.
The hearing is set for September.
Vail owns 34 resorts across the U.S., including six in the Rocky Mountains. Of those six, all are based in Colorado, except for Park City Mountain Resort.
In January 2025, after 10 months of negotiations and nearly two weeks of striking, the Park City Mountain ski patrol union and Vail agreed to a union contract that included increased wages.
Paighten is an Enterprise reporter at The Salt Lake Tribune. She covers a variety of topics, including business, health, growth and the legal justice system — sometimes all at once. She is from southern Oklahoma, and lived and worked in the state, most recently at the Tulsa World, before starting at The Tribune in October 2017.