The Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association began striking Friday morning after mediation in their contract talks with Vail Resorts on Thursday broke down. The action was prompted by the continuing lack of a counterproposal on wages and benefits from the company, union leaders said.Patrollers and supporters gathered in groups across Park City Mountain’s Mountain Village and Canyons Village beginning at 7:30 a.m. on Friday to hold their picket line. “Vail Resorts forced this walkout by bargaining in bad faith and repeatedly violating the National Labor Relations Act,” the union said in a statement Friday. “Consistent with Vail’s bad faith tactics, after yesterday’s seven-hour negotiation session with a mediator present, the company continued to refuse to give a counteroffer on wages or benefits.”The union is on an unfair labor practice strike related to charges filed last week with the National Labor Board against Vail Resorts.“We decided to go on a ULP strike because our larger organizing body, the Communications Workers of America, and our legal counsel advised us to go on a ULP strike, and we have multiple open with the company currently, and so we felt that was the best decision,” Quinn Graves, a fourth-year patroller and union business manager, said Friday morning.The union aims to use this picket line to “amplify their fight for better wages and working conditions,” the union said in its statement.“We’ve been trying to avoid the strike since April, and have done everything in our power to avoid this, but they continue to not bring counterproposals regarding wages and benefits to the table,” said Graves.In a statement on Friday morning, Park City Mountain Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Deirdra Walsh said: “Again, we are surprised by the union’s action, given we had planned for a full day of productive mediation today before they walked out. Unfortunately, that will not go forward as planned, as our negotiating team must now shift focus today to operational continuity. We remain committed to reaching an agreement.”   “I just want to make it clear that now we’re available every day to negotiate, and we really hope the company sees that and comes to the table and wants to negotiate with us. This strike, it’s not intended to go against our local management,” said Graves. “It’s to show Vail Resorts that we take our job seriously, and we really want to secure a fair contract for our unit.”A member of the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association holds a sign during a strike demonstration on Friday. Credit: Michael Ritucci for the Park Record“This escalation from Vail has proved that it is not their intention to present us with a reasonable offer,” said the union. “It is clear that the company sees more value in anti-union tactics than investing in its workforce. However, it is the safety and experience of the skiing public, and the livelihoods of ski patrollers and other employees, that will bear the cost.”The ski patrol union had confirmed Saturday that Vail Resorts planned to bring other Vail employees to Park City Mountain to fill the positions of ski patrol and mountain safety professionals in the event of a strike. “We are deeply disappointed the patrol union has walked out of mediation and chosen drastic action that attempts to disrupt mountain operations in the middle of the holiday season, given we invested significantly in patrol with their wages increasing more than 50% over the past four seasons, and we have reached agreements on 24 of the 27 current contract terms,” Walsh said on Friday. “We want to reassure skiers and snowboarders, our employees, and this community that despite the union’s actions, Park City Mountain will remain open with safety as our top priority, and all planned terrain will be open thanks to experienced patrol leaders from Park City Mountain and our other mountain resorts.”“We’re really frustrated to hear that the company has chosen to attempt to mitigate the effect of a strike rather than the symptoms of a strike,” said Margaux Klingensmith, union business manager and a sixth-year patroller. “If we saw the same time, effort, and money that they’ve put into bringing in scabs put into a fair contract for the people that have been dedicating years to become skilled professionals at Park City already, we wouldn’t have had to authorize a strike in the first place.”The ski patrol union has been in contract negotiations with Vail Resorts, the parent company of Park City Mountain, since April. In the time since, negotiators have reached tentative agreements on 24 articles of the contract, leaving the final three up to mediators this week. Both sides agreed to mediation on Monday, Dec. 16, following tensions the week prior. “We respect our patrollers and we feel really good about our compensation packages that we’ve offered,” Bill Rock, the president of Vail Resort’s mountain division, said last week. “Their wages have gone up over 50% over the last four years. The current proposal on the table has them receiving a 4% increase, plus the $1,600 equipment allowance, which we feel really good about.”The 200-plus ski patrollers and mountain safety employees are working without a contract. The minimum hourly wage for ski patrollers has been $21 since March 2022. The Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association’s main goals are raising base rates to $23 an hour, addressing wage compression for tenured patrollers, and improving benefits, according to Klingensmith.These three remaining articles on wages and benefits have been a main point of contention throughout the year’s negotiations. The union filed four unfair labor practice charges against Vail Resorts in mid-December. These charges relate to company delays and refusal of information requested relative to the bargaining process, failure to meet at reasonable intervals, and the company making internal phone calls to patrollers asking if they would cross a picket line in the event of a strike, Graves said last week. The union has set up a strike fund GoFundMe page to support patrollers and mountain safety personnel for the time they will not be working. The fund has raised over $47,922 as of 2 p.m. Friday, in addition to other community-led initiatives.The Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association went on strike Friday morning due to failed negations with Vail Resorts. Credit: Michael Ritucci for the Park RecordCredit: Photo Courtesy of Dalton GrackleCredit: Photo Courtesy of Dalton GrackleThe post Park City Mountain ski patrol goes on strike appeared first on Park Record.