Industry News
After months of negotiations and a planned picket looming, Breckenridge Ski Patrol Union and Vail Resorts reached a tentative labor agreement late Thursday night, avoiding a public demonstration scheduled for Sunday, Summit Daily reports.
In a joint statement released early Friday, both parties announced the new three-year deal extending through November 15, 2028. The union’s bargaining committee has unanimously recommended that members ratify the agreement. Neither side will comment further until the contract vote is complete.
Thursday’s agreement followed a lengthy bargaining session that capped off months of talks that began in April. Earlier this week, union president Ryan Dineen informed the Breckenridge Town Council that ski patrollers were preparing to picket at the base of the BreckConnect Gondola if a deal was not reached before their current contract’s November 15 expiration.
The proposed picket aimed to raise public awareness about the union’s efforts to improve wages, benefits, and professional development opportunities for patrollers, priorities that remained central throughout negotiations.
Dineen said previously that even if the demonstration took place, scheduled patrollers would still report to work. “We are not withholding our labor,” he told Summit Daily.
- Related: What Exactly Did Park City, UT, Patrollers Achieve in Their New Labor Contract with Vail Resorts?
With a tentative deal now in place, Breckenridge patrollers will return their focus to mountain safety operations as the ski season gets underway. Further details of the agreement will be shared following ratification by the members.
The trend of ski patrollers unionizing has been gaining significant momentum recently, marked notably by the historic 2024 strike at Park City, Utah, where nearly 200 patrollers struck for better wages, resulting in a raise to $23 per hour after 13 days. This set a precedent that accelerated negotiations across other resorts. Keystone Ski Patrol Union in Colorado reached an agreement with Vail Resorts in February 2025 after prolonged bargaining that included a collective action walk-in, before securing similar wage improvements and benefits. Additionally, patrollers at Solitude Ski Resort and other Vail-owned Colorado resorts, such as Crested Butte, have unionized or ratified contracts.
