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The Telluride Ski Patrol Union has rejected a contract proposal from the Telluride Ski Resort.
“That vote happened Monday night and that contract was emphatically and resoundingly voted down to the tune of 99%,” said Graham Hoffman, president of the Telluride Ski Patrol Union and a ski patroller at Telski for 10 years.
Hoffman said the vote puts the next move in the resort’s hands.
“This offer wasn’t addressing any of the concerns that we’ve brought to them,” he said. “By voting this down, and by voting this down so emphatically, the ball does go back to them, and we’d hope they’d come to us at some point in the near future with a new offer with some serious conversation.”
Telluride Ski Patrol began contract negotiations with Telluride Ski Resort in early June; the previous contract expired in August.
The resort’s proposed contract included an average 9% to 11% pay increase for this year, with a cost-of-living increase after that — with a minimum raise of 5% each year. The offer would put wages at roughly $24 an hour for trainees and nearly $40 an hour for station leads, or ski patrol supervisors.
Hoffman said that if Telski doesn’t return with a new offer in the coming days, a holiday strike is likely.
“We’re going to see what happens, see what shakes out of the company’s tree over the next few days,” he said. “If they continue to push back and not reach out to us, it’s going to look highly likely that we’re going to walk out sometime before the holidays.”
During a merchant meeting with local businesses on Tuesday, Telski representative Steve Swenson said the resort’s offer to ski patrol is competitive compared with other similar resorts. He said Telski is in the process of contacting those who bought season lift tickets to alert them of the potential strike. He added that a strike would have severe impacts on the community.
“If there’s a walkout, we’re expecting that all of us, all businesses, will be negatively affected,” Swenson said. “We know that this situation could affect us for this winter, over the holidays, for the whole winter, and for ongoing winters.”
He said that if ski patrol strikes, the resort would be able to open, at best, only Lift 1 and Lift 4.
Swenson added that if other resort employees — lifties or restaurant workers, for example — leave because of the strike, the resort could face challenges throughout the rest of the season.
“If that group decides to look at the situation over the holidays and they’re not working, they’re working as much as they want, they will leave,” he said. “If they leave, we could have a problem the rest of the season opening all the lifts, or all the restaurants that we operate.”
At the meeting, local business owner Caci Grinspan urged Swenson and Telski to reach a resolution with the Ski Patrol Union.
“Your business affects us deeply. We are really asking you please come to an agreement,” Grinspan said. “If this were to come to a head over the holidays it would be absolutely abominable to all of our businesses, not just yours. Please please do not let it come to this. As small businesses we just can’t take that, and we can’t take the ripple that will last for years to come. It’s a really bad look for town. Please consider that. Please consider taking care of your employees and come to some middle ground.”
Hoffman said the union understands the gravity of a strike and the impact it would have on the community.
“We know what this will do to the community. We are this community,” he said. “We know how this will affect the other businesses, because most of us work at those other businesses.”
He said union members want to keep working.
“It seems like they’re gearing up for a fight when we would really just love to have that conversation, and have them come to the table with a real offer that could get us closer to a living wage,” Hoffman said.
The Telluride Ski Resort opened for the winter season on Dec. 6. Ski patrol is continuing to work on the mountain without a contract until they decide whether to strike.
