On Friday, Nov. 21, the Breckenridge Ski Patrol Union and Breckenridge Ski Resort officially ratified a new union contract. 

The contract comes after the Breckenridge Ski Patrol Union and the ski resort spent several hours on Thursday, Nov. 13, negotiating in a bargaining meeting. If an agreement was not reached in that bargaining session, ski patrollers representing the union were prepared to picket outside of the BreckConnect Gondola on Sunday, Nov. 16. 

With a tentative agreement coming out of the bargaining session, union members and the ski resort then began working on ratifying the contract. Nearly a week later, the contract was formally adopted with both entities agreeing on a new three-year contract.

“This new, three-year agreement recognizes the unique demands our patrollers face as first responders to medical emergencies on our mountains, adding some recovery time off for patrollers to recuperate and recharge from incidents they deal with as part of their job,” Breckenridge Ski Resort Chief Operating Officer Jon Copeland said in a statement.

The union views the added recovery time for patrollers as one of the biggest wins in the recently adopted contract.

“This could be a big win for the entire industry,” Breckenridge ski patroller Parker Semin said. “We were able to get this available for most, if not all, patrollers starting in their second season with the majority of our second to fifth year patrollers receiving five days of PTO and five-plus year patrollers getting seven days of PTO.”

“All patrollers currently receive paid sick time, extensive wellness benefits and mental health resources,” a Vail Resorts spokesperson said. “We are providing this recovery time to allow eligible full-time, seasonal patrollers to proactively plan and schedule time off in advance, in recognition of their unique role as first responders.” 

Paid time away from the job was not the only thing that was addressed in the contract. The union was also able to improve their medical incentives. Breckenridge patrollers will now be receiving an additional $1.50/hour if they are an EMT. Advanced EMTs/RNs will see an additional $2.50/hour with Advanced Life Support providers (ALS) getting an additional $3.25 an hour. 

Ski patrollers now feel like the incentives are more in line with the work it takes to achieve major certifications and the role patrollers play on the mountain.  

“We provide medical skills-based pay to our patrollers to recognize the certifications they earn and maintain and use in their work on the mountain,” a spokesperson with Vail Resorts said. “We regularly review and adjust the pay rates for those skills and the number of patrollers who earn medical skills-based pay based on the unique needs of each mountain.”

Beyond recovery time and incentives, the contract addresses wage caps for senior patrollers. With the goal of making ski patrolling a viable career, senior patrollers at Breckenridge will receive a one-time market adjustment in the amount of $0.20 per full time year spent at an advanced level or above and $0.10 per part time year spent at that level. 

One of the final pieces that was addressed in the contract was wage suppression for the union’s younger patrollers. According to Semin, patrollers previously received only the higher of either a promotion-related wage increase or a merit increase.

The practice would reportedly lead to wage suppression, but the new contract allows patrollers to receive their promotion wage increase and their merit increase from the prior year. The contract also gives incoming patrollers the ability to earn $30/hour toward the end of their third season or the beginning of their fourth. 

Although the union feels like their needs are being met by Breckenridge Ski Resort with this contract, there is still an opportunity for other issues to be addressed in the future. Semin states that the union would eventually like to see an agreement that addresses the stagnation of wages during the contract period. 

As it currently stands, patrollers receive a merit adjustment on base wages which only makes up around 75% of a senior patroller’s total wages. 

“This means that 25% of our wages will not change over the next three years,” Semin said. “That has a major impact on our true wage power as inflation will continue to grow.”

Overall, both the union and the resort view the contract in a positive light. The union specifically believes that they are making a step in the right direction in terms of making ski patrolling a professional and sustainable career in the county.

“We are all excited to start the season under contract and be able to put our focus towards opening terrain and giving our guests the best experience,” Semin said “There will always be things that we believe can be improved upon, and it is exciting that we have a voice in making those changes through the Union.”

This story is from Summit Daily.