(Reuters) – Vacation skiers at Utah’s Park Metropolis (NYSE:), the most important U.S. ski resort, reported on social media that they have been encountering lengthy elevate strains and a few closed trails on Tuesday as a strike by ski patrol employees entered its fifth day.
Practically 200 ski patrol and security employees are on strike over calls for for increased pay at Park Metropolis Mountain Resort, which is owned by Vail Resorts Inc (NYSE:), demanding an entry-level base wage of $23 an hour, up from the present $21, in accordance with an emailed assertion from the ski patrol union.
This week is the busiest ski week of the yr.
Park Metropolis remained open on Tuesday, and lots of the ski patrol have been nonetheless working, Vail Resorts stated in an emailed assertion. The corporate stated in an e-mail that it doesn’t disclose staffing figures.
The union, the Park Metropolis Skilled Ski Patrol, stated in its e-mail that there are usually 120 individuals on patrol, however that on Tuesday there have been between 30 and 35.
The union, in a put up on social media, stated Vail Resorts had “flown in scabs” from different resorts to work at Park Metropolis.
Sara Huey, a spokesperson for Vail Resorts, stated in an e-mail that the corporate had met 24 of the union’s 27 calls for for the reason that ski patrol’s contract expired in April. She offered no specifics on the calls for the corporate had not met.
Huey stated Vail had elevated ski patrol wages by greater than 50% throughout the previous 4 ski seasons, pushing the typical hourly wage to over $25.
The 7,300-acre ski resort didn’t promote same-day elevate tickets on Monday, however resumed the same-day tickets on Tuesday, Huey stated.
Vail Resorts operates greater than three dozen ski resorts, together with Vail and Breckenridge in Colorado, Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia, Canada, and Stowe in Vermont.
(This story has been corrected to say that the same-day elevate tickets have been suspended solely on Monday, not that they have been suspended on Monday and Tuesday, in paragraph 9)
