Vail Resorts has reached another deal with unionized workers, deflecting the threat of a possible strike by Keystone ski patrollers.
The 81-member Keystone Ski Patrol Union on Saturday voted to approve an employment contract that delivered a pay increase of more than $8 an hour for veteran patrollers and $2 an hour for newer hires.
The first contract for the ski patrol union that formed in the spring of 2024 also provides additional pay for patrollers with emergency medical, nursing and paramedic certifications. Patrollers with fluency in other languages also get extra pay as do patrollers who are certified sawyers and chairlift evacuators.
“It’s great we are getting a higher dollar amount but what our team is really stoked about is the ability to get these raises has been drastically increased to a wider section of our patrol,” said Jake Randall, a six-year Keystone patroller who represents the union.
Vail Resorts and the Keystone union started negotiating last fall and the bargaining teams were meeting once a month. Progress was slow and the patrollers were irked they did not have a contract heading into the ski season. The patrollers were hoping for increased pay for long-time patrollers as well as pay bumps for patrollers with specialized training. Their requests mirror the growing call for better pay and benefits for ski resort workers as the cost of living and housing soars in mountain communities.
There are more than 1,100 members in the United Mountain Workers union that represents ski patrollers at 14 ski areas and lift mechanics at two resorts.
Earlier this month Vail Resorts reached a deal with its unionized lift mechanics at Crested Butte Mountain Resort that delivered an average $6-an-hour raise to the 12-member union. In January the company ended a first-in-decades 12-day strike with its patrollers at Park City Mountain Resort, which irked skiers with long lift lines and closed terrain during the busy, snowy Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
Following the Park City settlement Vail Resorts unveiled pay increases for ski patrollers across its 43-ski area network who work in avalanche terrain.
The Park City strike and settlement has fueled union interest among resort workers, labor organizers said. It also accelerated negotiations between the company and its unionized workers.
“After the Park City strike they seemed to be able to meet multiple times a week,” Randall said, adding that the union “grew restless” with the company’s slow negotiations and publicly pondered if a walk-out might speed up contract talks. “We believe they wanted to lock us into a contract to prevent another strike, so they began moving on wages pretty quickly.”
Vail Resorts emailed a statement from Keystone general manager Shannon Buhler that noted teamwork as “the root and foundation of everything we do here and is key to providing the best experience possible for our employees, our community, and our skiers and riders.”
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for our patrollers at Keystone and I appreciate the conversations we have had throughout this process that brought us to this point: a contract with base wages that are consistent with our other resorts and skills-based pay that reflects the terrain and avalanche complexity of Keystone Resort,” reads the statement from Buhler.