Monday night, Vail Resorts and the Park City Mountain ski patrol union agreed to mediation.Last week was fractious with the union’s negotiators walking out of the previous session Thursday and announcing Saturday their members had authorized a strike. “Despite months of meetings, including the most recent bargaining session on the evening of Dec. 12, little progress has been made on a proposed wages, benefits, and education package,” the union said in a statement Saturday, explaining the unanimous vote to support a strike if talks broke down to that point. “PCPSPA presented its initial proposal on wages and benefits on Sept. 20. Since then, Vail Resorts has passed virtually the same economic counterproposal back three times without substantial revisions, despite PCPSPA making significant concessions. Vail’s current proposal removes critical wage parity protections offered in the expired contract, secured in 2022.”The union representatives said their key priorities include: Securing a wage and benefit package that allows members to thrive and aligns with the documented cost of living in the Park City area. Establishing a wage structure that encourages career longevity among employees, fostering a highly skilled and experienced patrol. This benefits both patrollers and Vail Resorts by maintaining safety and excellence on the mountain. Decompressing the pay scale to ensure tenured patrollers are compensated for their skills, knowledge, and experience. This includes maintaining an industry-leading education and training package. Keeping wages in step with inflation since 2022. Starting wages were raised to $21 per hour in 2022, but rising costs equate to what should be a $23 starting wage today. Neighboring resort, Deer Valley, recently raised their starting wage to $23.50 and Powder Mountain-another Utah ski resort-starts ski patrollers at $26 an hour.Vail Resorts leaders expressed their own frustration with union negotiators walking out Thursday without waiting for company officials to present any counterproposals. But this week opened at least with the feel of a fresh start.Bill Rock, president of Vail Resort’s Mountain Division, joined negotiations on Monday and on Tuesday said he felt a similar shift in sentiments.“We’ve been quite pleased with the tone and the tenor and how things have been progressing up to now,” said Rock. “And then last Thursday, something changed dramatically, where the union refused to discuss our wage proposal, they also refused to discuss mediation, and they basically walked out of the session.”Monday’s meeting ended optimistically with the agreement to mediation, said Rock.“Our intention was that we wanted the company to know that our elected negotiators speak for our unit, not just themselves, which is something that the company has questioned in the room,” said Margaux Klingensmith, a union business manager and sixth-year patroller. The union members stood outside of negotiations on Thursday night chanting words of support, including “What do we want? A fair contract. When do we want it? Now.” “Our negotiators are working 10-hour days of mentally and physically demanding work on hill and then heading straight into negotiations,” said Klingensmith. “It’s incredibly unsustainable for our unit to keep working without a contract like this. We feel that the company knows that, and it feels like it’s a strategy to drag these negotiations into the season where we’re all working full time and try to go to negotiations after work, and it feels like it’s their strategy to use that to their advantage. And it feels like that’s the second time that that’s happened.” Current negotiations echo three years ago when the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association’s contract with Vail Resorts ended in 2021, said Klingensmith. Contract negotiations between Vail Resorts and the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association lasted 18 months over 50 bargaining sessions and were concluded following a 98% strike authorization vote.This year, union negotiators said they are working on settling a longer-term contract so they don’t continue to enter taxing, tense negotiations every three years. “Our unit is set up with being forced to show solidarity outside the room if we want any meaningful progress in our economic proposal. This is the second contract in a row that this has happened with,” said Klingensmith. “Our new offer includes cost of living adjustments that would help us feel comfortable signing a longer duration contract so we can avoid doing these contentious negotiations every couple of years.” Vail Resorts and the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association have come to tentative agreements on 23 articles of a new contract, though they remain in conversation about wages, benefits and education. “Our focus has really been to remain committed to productive constructions and respectful dialogue at the table,” said Deirdra Walsh, vice president and chief operating officer of Park City Mountain. “And as this has been over time, we’ve reached (tentative agreements) on several articles already with the union. I think that’s a good demonstration on both sides.” On these tentative agreements, the union representatives said they also felt hopeful for the demonstration of good faith and understanding on both sides. That changed a bit when negotiations shifted more toward economic issues. “We had hoped with some of the progress we’ve made over the summer, in tentatively agreeing to a lot of our non-economic articles, it would be different (from previous contract negotiations),” said Klingensmith. “But it seemed that shifted after we proposed our economic offer on Sept. 20 and didn’t hear back for 55 days on the counterproposal.”With these delays, patrollers are working without a contract, said Klingensmith, and they have been doing so for over three weeks since the mountain’s opening. “It’s up to the company to decide where we go from here,” said Klingensmith. “We hope to not have to use this (strike) authorization vote at all. Again, we all want to come to work, we all want to do the job that we love. That’s why we’re fighting so hard for a better workplace and better working conditions and wages that allow people to make a career out of this.”In the interim time while plans for mediation are secured, the union and Vail Resorts will continue to negotiate without mediators.Meantime, the union has initiated a fund to support patrollers in the event of a strike.Since the GoFundMe page went live on Saturday, the union has raised more than $10,000 toward their $50,000 goal. “We are deeply disappointed the union has decided to vote to authorize a strike after refusing to negotiate in good faith or discuss mediation on Thursday, and this approach does not acknowledge that Park City Mountain patrol wages have increased more than 50% in the past four seasons to an average wage of $25/hour,” said Walsh in a statement on Saturday. Since negotiations in 2021, Vail Resorts raised entry level base pay from $19 to $21 an hour to account for inflation. The union aims to increase this to $23, “the current entry-level rate adjusted for inflation since March 2022,” said the union. Vail Resorts’ current offer stands at increasing the average wage of a returning patroller by 4% with a $1,600 gear allowance. With the average patrol wage currently at $25, this increase would mean $26 an hour for experienced patrollers. Rock’s experience as a former COO at Park City Mountain, from 2015 to 2019, gives him some extra perspective, he said. “I came to try to provide some context to see if I could be helpful in getting things on track. I’m pleased that last night, we resumed productive conversations with the union during the bargaining session, and both sides reiterated their commitment to getting it agreed,” he said..Rock expressed optimism Tuesday following Monday’s bargaining session.  “I think it’s important to note that the contract itself has 27 articles in it, and we’ve agreed on 23, which is great,” said Rock. “We’ve got a mediator to help us close the gap on the final four.” The post Ski patrol union, Vail Resorts agree to mediation appeared first on Park Record.