The Inertia for Good Editor
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The Inertia

Vail Resorts has had a rough go this winter when it comes to public relations. Last year’s ongoing negotiations with Park City Mountain ski patrollers and eventual strike in the closing days of 2024 started a literal avalanche of bad PR for the company, which owns and operates 42 mountain resorts around the world. The labor strike created a lot of unfavorable visibility in the media, brought an investigation for securities fraud and “other unlawful business practices,” and had an investor calling for the CEO, CFO, and Executive Chairman to lose their positions. That same investor also labeled Vail skiing’s “Evil Empire.”

A less-visible story during that period was that of a similar labor negotiation with Keystone Resort ski patrollers, who announced Tuesday they’d reached a tentative agreement with Vail Resorts. Keystone’s ski patrol first formed its union in April of 2024. The workers organized hoping to combat a lack of affordable housing.

“Tenure is one of our biggest issues because we live in a fairly expensive place, and we don’t get paid a terribly large amount of money to do what we do,” Cory Cavegn, a union organizer told Summit Daily News in 2024. “It’s hard to keep people on. The hope is that with some of the changes … keeping people around would be a more realistic thing.”

Negotiations for this first contract took several months, similar to the ordeal at Park City, however Keystone didn’t reach the same level of tension and frustrations as in Utah.

“We have an enormous amount of respect for all our Keystone Resort employees, including our ski patrollers, who are an important part of our resort team and the Keystone experience,” Keystone Resort vice president and general manager Shannon Buhler told Summit Daily. “We remain committed to a respectful and productive negotiation process aligned to our values and to reaching an agreement.”

A joint statement for the newly formed union and Keystone Resort said details and terms of the agreement won’t be shared with the public until the contract receives a vote on February 22.

 
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