Vail Resorts comes to agreement with Park City Mountain lift maintenance union

Park City Mountain. Photo: TownLift // Rayne Moynahan

The agreement will give all of Park City Mountain's lift maintenance employees a raise

PARK CITY, Utah — Vail Resorts and Park City Mountain’s lift maintenance union have officially come to an agreement after more than a year of negotiations.

Ski lift mechanics at the resort voted 35-6 to unionize in Nov. 2022, becoming the first in the nation to unionize.

According to Cody Madden, lead lift mechanic at Park City Mountain and member of the lift maintenance union bargaining committee, key issues that the union wanted to address included improving safety conditions and boosting employee retention.

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Madden said that the lift maintenance crew struggled to retain employees because they weren’t being compensated commensurate to their work experience or working conditions.

“You had a guy who’s been on lift maintenance for two or three years, making the same as a lift operator his first year, and it’s an inherently more dangerous job,” Madden said. “Longer hours more is demanded of you a higher skill set and we felt that wasn’t fair, and it wasn’t helping our retention.”

Although the agreement between Vail and the union is not yet publicly available, Madden said it will give lift maintenance workers at Park City Mountain a raise across the board.

“We get some more compensation for that harder work, that more dangerous work,” Madden said. “Overall, our goal is to retain employees so we can get past the two and three year mark and keep them around longer.”

Although it took nearly 13 months for Vail and the union to reach an agreement, Madden said that the negotiation process with Vail went relatively smoothly. However, it took time due to the size of the corporation, and how many decisions had to be made.

“There was a lot of back and forth but overall, it was very respectful on both sides,” Madden said. “I do want to commend Vail. You know, as much as they get a bad light in the media, they were not hard to negotiate with as far as setting up meeting times and everything. They were very willing to meet with us, and all the meetings were, for the most part, very productive.”

Madden hopes that the agreement between Vail and Park City Mountain’s lift maintenance union will set a positive precedent for others in the industry looking to make lift maintenance not just a summer or wintertime job, but rather a sustainable career.

“We hope this is a footprint for other resorts, and we hope there’s trickle down for other resorts, that it benefits everyone even if their union or not,” Madden said. “We want everyone in lift maintenance and other departments to see that you can get something out of this, and you can turn this into a career.”

Deirdra Walsh, vice president and COO of Park City Mountain, released the following statement:

“I am pleased and grateful to share that Park City Mountain has come to an agreement with our resort’s lift maintenance union. Through a positive and respectful process, both sides worked to reach an agreement that that will govern our working relationship, and one that is consistent with our company’s approach for lift maintenance across all of our resorts. We respect and care deeply about all of our employees, including our lift maintenance teams, and we will continue to do the right thing for team members across the company. With our 2023-24 season now underway, we look forward to celebrating our 60th year and continuing to work together to provide a great experience for our guests and employees.”