Why Is The Strike Taking place?
On the middle of this dispute is compensation, particularly the construction of the wage scale and the extent of pay at each the entry and senior ends of patrol positions. Telluride’s ski patrol union is pushing for a considerable improve, proposing a brand new beginning wage of about $28 per hour and considerably increased top-end pay for probably the most skilled patrollers, nearing $40-$48 per hour below their mannequin. The union is emphasizing that these wage will increase are particularly vital for retaining their senior patrollers, who deliver specialised talent units pertinent to the resort’s excessive terrain (together with the Palmyra Peak hike that takes over two hours on foot) and can be extraordinarily troublesome to interchange.
The resort’s newest provide additionally contains significant raises from present ranges, however nonetheless falls in need of the union’s request, with a beginning wage of roughly $24 per hour and better tiers topping out within the upper-$30s.
Union leaders argue that the monetary hole between the 2 sides is definitely fairly small within the scheme of issues, being about $112,000 within the first 12 months and roughly $65,000 throughout the three-year contract. They argue that such a modest distinction feels laborious to justify given the size of the resort’s operations and the financial harm a holiday-week shutdown creates.
Telluride, in the meantime, has framed its provide, which would offer a minimum of a $3 per hour elevate to all patrollers, as “industry-leading, livable, and sustainable”, and has criticized the union’s requested 28% first-year wage improve as extreme. The resort argues this negotiation is much less a couple of single 12 months’s greenback determine and extra about setting a long-term wage construction they imagine they will maintain. Resort management has additionally circulated a PDF evaluating its provide to the present wages at different resorts, though it has not disclosed which particular resorts these wage benchmarks are based mostly on. The resort’s argument additionally disregards unbiased reporting citing Telluride as the costliest ski city in all the nation.
