PARK CITY, Utah — Unionized members of the skip patrol at Park City Mountain Resort are on strike.
"Just ski maybe a little more safer than you normally would," Quinn Graves said Monday from the picket lines.
Graves, the business manager for the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association, said she's heard of massive crowds at Park City Mountain Resort, not unusual for this time of year, but believes some of those longer wait times are due to the walkout Friday by the union representing their ski patrol.
"I would say ski at your risk — like always — and just prepare for longer wait times," Graves advised.
Photos and videos posted on various social media outlets show massive crowds at lifts Monday at Park City Mountain Resort. Some customers questioned whether that had anything to do with the strike, and others questioned safety with members of experienced ski patrol off the slopes.
"There’s a lot of terrain that could be open right now if a lot of us were up on the mountain and not on strike," Graves said. "And a lot of people have been saying it’s just generally busy and a lot of people who have been injured have had really long wait times to have a first responder respond to their injury."
"We are focused on safety first and that is number one," said Deirdra Walsh, the vice president and chief operating officer of Park City Mountain Resort. "Safety at the top. We assess the terrain that we have each and every day and we take a look at the personnel that we have and assign them accordingly and focus on safety for that day — each and every day."
A notice was posted on Park City Mountain Resort's Instagram account Monday about lift tickets not being sold for the day, but they were still honoring season passes and other tickets sold. PCMR said that's typical during the busy holiday season to "preserve the customer experience."
But Walsh said a lot of the closures on the mountain are actually thanks to Mother Nature.
"This is actually a pretty abnormal start to the season when it comes to snowpack, so that’s certainly one factor," she said. "Five-year average is 110 inches. We’re at 69 right now and certainly the impact of not having our ski patrollers here is what we assess each and every day. We have an incredible amount of ski patrollers that are here."
Managers and supervisors who are not union are filling the holes, along with others who were brought in from other resorts across the country.
"They are experts. They are professionals and they are committed to safety each and every day," Walsh said, adding that they hope to get the striking ski patrol employees back on the slopes as soon as possible with negotiations resuming Monday afternoon.
"We’ve had mediation that we’ve been committed to… and then just this morning we found out the federal mediator was available so we now have talks scheduled today, tomorrow and Thursday," Walsh said.
Graves says she hopes they can get the pay increase they need.
"Because the people who’ve worked here for a long time have worked really hard to get to where they are and provide a lot of safety for both our patrol mountain safety and guests on the mountain, and they need to be compensated fairly," she said.
They've been working without a contract since April and have been negotiating with Park City Mountain's owner, Vail Resorts. But talks broke down at the end of last week.
The union says pay is the main sticking point, as they ask for a $2 increase in their base pay from $21 to $23 an hour, and incentives for more long-term employees.
"I’m looking forward to having productive conversations," Walsh told FOX 13 News, hopeful they can resolve the strike as soon as possible.
"We hope we can end this soon by getting a fair contract offer," Graves said, thanking the community, who she says has overwhelmingly supported them during their walkout.
