After turning down the latest contract proposal, the Telluride Professional Ski Patrol Association (TPSPA) plans to strike starting Saturday; 99 percent of its members voted in favor of the strike.
As a result, the ski resort owner said that the resort will close indefinitely.
“Currently, we have no idea how long their strike will last, so we will continue to work on a plan that allows us to safely open again as soon as possible,” said the resort’s owner, Telski, in a statement.
“Despite extensive effort and movement from TPSPA to avoid this outcome, the company continues to push a 2.5-week-old LBFO that does not address our concerns,” said TPSPA in a statement after the recent vote. “The $65,000 gap between three-year proposals reflects unwillingness from the company to fix a broken wage structure. We need a pathway to attract and retain, and the current proposal from Telski is simply a Band-Aid, not a long-term solution. It does nothing for the longevity of this institution.”
ABC News reports that the patrollers want to be paid in line with their counterparts at other resorts in the region. The union wants starting pay to rise from $21 to $28 per hour, and for wages for the most experienced patrollers to increase from $30-$36 per hour to $39-$48.60 per hour.
Last year, a similar situation at Utah’s Park City Mountain Resort resulted in a strike that lasted almost two weeks.
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