The glee of Park City Mountain’s opening day on Friday turned to a bit of cold reality on Saturday as Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association members picketed on the path to day two of the new ski season.Over 60 people and an avalanche rescue dog named Piper gathered on the corners of Park Avenue and Deer Valley Drive in the wind laced with snow pellets as a promising storm approached. Patrollers held signs with sentiments such as “Asking for respect,” “Can’t pay rent in fun,” and “Honk for solidarity.” Some skiers headed for Park City Mountain honked in support, waved to the patrollers and raised fists out open car windows. “We are aware that some patrollers are picketing today,” said Deirdra Walsh, vice president and chief operating officer of Park City Mountain. “There are no impacts — and will be no impacts — to our mountain operations. We are open and excited to welcome guests, with nine lifts running, 11 trails, a terrain park, and fantastic early season conditions across more than 350 acres.”Quinn Graves, a born and raised Park City resident and fourth-year ski patroller and business manager on the mountain village side for the union, stood in front of Cole Sport. “We’re out here because we have been in negotiations with the company Vail Resorts since May of this year, and our contract expired at the end of April,” she said. “So we’re going on nine months of contract negotiations, and we’ve met 20 times with the company.”Over 60 people had joined the demonstration by 9:30 a.m. Saturday. Credit: Clayton Steward/Park Record“Park City Mountain is negotiating in good faith with the union that represents its ski patrollers to reach an agreement that continues to demonstrate the great respect we have for our patrollers and the guest service they provide at the resort,” Walsh said. “Park City Mountain takes seriously its responsibility to care for its thousands of employees, guests and the community.” Amid a wave of honks, Graves described the atmosphere of what it was like to be demonstrating on the first Saturday of ski season. “We have gotten overwhelming positive support from the community,” she said. “We are so grateful for the community.”The organization represents more than 200 ski patrollers and mountain safety employees working without a contract.Margaux Klingensmith, also business manager of the union with Graves, described the counter offer they received in the last negotiating session as “really disappointing,” which spurred the demonstration.“We are out here united to fight for a fair contract and hope that in our next negotiations, we make some progress on a better proposal on wages,” she said. Graves said a sticking point is pay. In 2022, Vail Resorts upped the minimum wage for the ski patrol to $21. The union is asking for a $23-an-hour base rate, she said.“We felt that $23 is a fair ask to rise in accordance with inflation and cost of living,” she said.A statement from the union said a counter offer from the company amounted to “less than a 0.5% raise and would remove foundational elements from the current contract.” Klingensmith explained that the push for a wage increase goes beyond the finances of working as a ski patroller.“A lot of times, folks are like, why not just go get another job?” she said. “If everyone got another job, no one would be here. And so we want to focus on improving our workplace, because we love working here. We love our jobs. We want to continue doing our jobs. We just want to be fairly compensated for the work that we do.” Nina Bridges, a two-year ski patroller, makes a sign that says “Honk for Solidarity” on Saturday morning. Bridges said that she arrived around 8 a.m. and that “people have been showing support” to the demonstrators. Credit: Clayton Steward/Park RecordGraves said that the association’s negotiation committee will be meeting with the company again on Tuesday. “Hopefully, we can make some progress there, but we’ll see how that progresses,” she said.“We are proud of our company’s continued investments in ski patrol pay and benefits that recognize their specialized skills and the needs of individual resorts,” Walsh said. “Over the past three years, the average wage for ski patrollers across the company, including at Park City Mountain, has increased substantially — far outpacing the rate of wage inflation — resulting in very competitive wages. Our wage proposal includes additional increases consistent with how we reward all employees on an annual basis, with wages this year that would again outpace wage inflation. We are also proud to lead the industry in terms of benefits, perks, training, and the equipment compensation we provide to our ski patrollers. We remain committed to discussions with the union and are optimistic we will reach agreement, given that our contract offer is consistent with several other contracts accepted and ratified by our company’s unionized ski patrols.”In the case that the negotiations still do not leave the association satisfied, Graves said they have the right to go on strike, although that is not the outcome they are hoping for. “We all love our job,” she said. “We want to show up to work. Everyone who is here today wasn’t scheduled to work today and a bunch of our coworkers are up on the hill, working hard to keep everyone safe.”Love for the work itself seems to be a point of agreement.“We look forward to delivering a great guest experience this season and are so grateful to all of our employees for their hard work and passion for Park City Mountain,” Walsh said.Park Record correspondent Pamela Manson contributed to this report.Demonstrators embrace while holding a sign in front of Cole Sport on Saturday morning. Credit: Clayton Steward/Park RecordThe demonstrators stood on all four corners of the intersection of Park Avenue and Deer Valley Drive. Credit: Clayton Steward/Park RecordAvalanche rescue dog, Piper, was in attendance for the demonstration on Saturday morning. Credit: Clayton Steward/Park RecordThe post Park City Mountain’s ski patrol union demonstrates to honks and waves from skiers driving in appeared first on Park Record.