Nearly all 81 members of the Keystone Ski Patrol Union voted to accept a new contract with Keystone Resort that will last through the 2026-2027 ski season.
The announcement follows months of back and forth between management at Vail Resorts and the union that formed in 2024.
Union bargaining team member Jake Randall said that after workers at Keystone’s sister resort in Park City Utah went on strike, Vail Resorts was ready to come to the table.
“We actually came to an agreement pretty quickly after the strike ended,” Randall said. “We put it to a vote with overwhelming support. We did have a couple no votes in there, but the sentiment of the group is that we made a lot of progress with this contract.”
Workers sought a higher starting wage and pay increases during the negotiations. The new contract resulted in a $2.50 increase per hour for entry-level ski patrollers and an increase of more than $8 for the more senior team lead positions.
The contract also includes incentives for those with special skills like language interpretation and advanced medical certifications.
“We've also increased the access to attain some of these new incentives. For example, the company will now send people to go get higher advanced medical certificates so that they can come back and then attain those pay increases,” Randall said.
The union’s goal was to ensure ski patrollers could live where they work and grow in their careers.
“For people that have to go through rigorous amounts of medical training, months of onsite training, just to be able to do this job and then take into account the years it takes to actually learn the mountain and understand the operation – our pay wasn't keeping people around long enough to attain those higher specializations,” Randall said.
In a statement about the agreement, the union said it believes this contract is a “huge step towards ski patrolling as a sustainable career, and better reflects the value of work the ski patrol delivers.”
United Mountain Workers, the Keystone union’s parent organization, told CPR News earlier this month that its efforts reflect growing discontent within the industry..
“Over the last decade, the ski industry has grown significantly, and the focus of the bosses has shifted to capturing as much wealth as possible for corporate executives and shareholders,” it said in a statement. “The need for worker representation in our sector has never been higher.”
Breckenridge Ski Patrol Union’s contract with Vail Resorts expires on May 1. Patrollers there are next on deck to begin negotiations.
United Mountain Workers represents more than 1,100 ski industry professionals across 13 ski resorts in the Western United States, including 10 in Colorado.
