As Park City Mountain’s opening day approaches, the resort and the union representing ski patrollers are still negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement.The previous contract between Vail Resorts, owner of Park City Mountain, and the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association expired at the end of April. Representatives of the union and the company have met 17 times in the past eight months but the discussions have not resulted in a deal yet.The 200-plus ski patrollers and mountain safety employees are working without a contract. Conditions permitting, Park City Mountain is scheduled to open its 2024-25 season on Nov. 22.The two sides have made more progress in their talks this year than they had at this point in 2021, when the now-expired contract was being worked out, according to Quinn Graves, a union business manager.That contract was ratified in January 2022 following about 50 bargaining sessions and just after the union membership overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike should the negotiations fail.“In this round of negotiations, everything that’s happened at the bargaining table has been far more respectful than the last time around,” Graves said.Mike Lewis, Park City Mountain’s vice president of mountain operations, also described the negotiations as respectful and productive and said the resort is working in earnest toward a new contract.“We deeply value all of our team members and are proud of the recent investments we’ve made into the employee experience,” Lewis said. “The entire team at Park City Mountain is looking forward to delivering our guests a great experience this upcoming winter season.”When the previous contract was ratified, the union said in a posting at the time that it had “secured wage incentives and tenure recognition that we strongly feel reflect the technical and hazardous nature of our job.” In March 2022, Vail announced the company was raising its minimum hourly wage for ski patrollers to $21.More than 90% of ski patrollers were dues-paying union members last year, Graves said. Members sign new forms every season so this year’s percentage will be known in about a month, she said.Everything in the contract is being negotiated and some articles will change and others will stay the same, Graves said. Economic issues are on the table, she said.“The specific goals are to address rising inflation generally and specifically the cost of living in and around Park City, which is much higher than the national average, especially for housing costs,” she said.Wage compression is another concern, Graves said. Under the last contract, a lot of new hires and employees who were newer to the job got larger pay raises than the most tenured and skilled ski patrollers, who had hit the wage cap, she said.“That’s something we’re addressing in our contract, as well,” Graves said.The union submitted a wage proposal on Sept. 20 and is waiting for a counterproposal from Vail, she said. The next bargaining session is scheduled for mid-November.Until a new agreement is ratified, Vail is withholding merit-based raises that the ski patrollers earned last season, Graves said. The union and the resort have come to a tentative agreement on a lot of issues but nothing is official until members vote to approve it, she said.Both the union and the company agree they want highly trained team members, according to Graves.“We want higher retention and we want high performance of those team members, so we can all agree on that,” she said. “But in order to make that happen, employees first need to be able to thrive and not just be surviving paycheck to paycheck and be expected to live in and around a mountain town, which is expensive. We all know that.” Vail Resorts and ski patrol union negotiate collective bargaining agreement as old contract expires PCMR ski patrol union ratifies deal with Vail Resorts, ending possibility of a strike PCMR owner Vail Resorts sets a $20-per-hour minimum wage The post Negotiations grind on as Park City Mountain ski patrollers work without contract appeared first on Park Record.