Eldora management drops challenge to ski-patrol unionization

BOULDER COUNTY — Management at Powdr Corp., Eldora Mountain’s parent company, cried foul after patrollers at the Boulder County ski area voted this spring to unionize, but management has had a change of heart and will no longer challenge the results of that vote.  

In a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board, Eldora management accused labor organizers of “improper conduct,” alleging that organizers focused their get-out-the-vote efforts on paid patrollers (who would presumably benefit most from admission into the United Professional Ski Patrols of America, which is part of the  Communications Workers of America union) at the expense of volunteer patrollers (who presumably might not be as apt to support unionization). 

In a letter sent last week to a CWA official, Eldora president Brent Tregaskis wrote that the company hopes the parties “can find a path forward to commence bargaining in good faith. Although we stand by the underlying merit, we are withdrawing the objections so that we can focus on what is important: our patrollers. We are a family at Eldora that will always support one another through the good times, tough times, and despite any differences. In that spirit, we invite the CWA to join us at the bargaining table upon Board certification of the vote.”

Workers hope to negotiate for “improved working circumstances,” such as better pay, fewer overtime hours, expanded and improved health-care coverage, Eldora ski patroller Nick Lansing told BizWest last October after a majority of Eldora’s ski patrol signed union cards indicating that they favor taking a vote on joining the UPSPA. In April, all but three participants in the union vote favored organizing. 

Workers at Eldora, Lansing said, have been “looking around the industry at all of the great momentum unions have had within ski patrols — we would be the seventh patrol in Colorado to join this union and the eighth unionized ski patrol in Colorado.” Resorts with unionized patrol divisions include Breckenrisge, Loveland Ski Area and Steamboat Springs.  

Ryan Dineen, an organizer for CWA Local 7781, confirmed to BizWest that the union received communications from Eldora management regarding their decision to drop their challenge to the unionization effort. 

“Interestingly enough it was announced by the company the night before the hearing regarding those (issues) was to commence,” he wrote in an email. “The next steps forward are for the NLRB to officially certify the election and the bargaining process to begin.”