Vail blacklists all employee passes for the weekend

eheathSo what you think every resort has the same contract? Nah dude, it says in your paperwork when you work for vail that skiing is a privilege. You don't get to decide when its part of your wage, the resort does and I can almost guarantee any resort that has a competent business plan does not include it as a wage.

eheathPCMR used to hand out ski passes like candy to park skiers and industry folk, most people I knew got a free PC pass until Vail came in. That being said, Vail is running a business and there model works very, very well, you can't really expect much change from Vail as they are absolutely stuffing their pockets every second of every day.

jakeordiehttps://goo.gl/maps/PjsHWVk18BdZWAJT6

Craw_DaddyYou do know that a wage is the fixed monetary part of your compensation right? You saying that a pass is not part of a wage is like saying an apple is not an orange. like yeah, we know...

**This post was edited on Dec 14th 2020 at 12:28:59pm

eheathThis doesn't really support your argument dude, you're further proving that skiing is a privilege.

Craw_DaddyVail is abusing an unspoken rule of the ski industry for monetary gain and its bullshit.

Craw_DaddyDude, If Vail wants to have blackout dates that's fine but they should have put it in writing before seasonal employees started working for them.

eheathAnd what unspoken rule is that dude? Don't blackout employee passes on holidays?

Look, I'll level with you, I don't like it either but Vail isn't going to change, sorry dude.

deathcookieYou know, companies can also lower your pay, but they don't do that because it's scummy, not because it's illegal. They just need to inform you of the change before they do it. If you don't like the pay change, you quit.

The employee pass isn't part of your wage, it's part of your employee compensation. If you don't like how they changed the dates, you can quit.

If you're given paid time off, would you consider it to be a privilege, or part of your compensation? Your employer has the right to take away your paid time off "privalege," just like Vail is taking away ski days from its employees. Nevertheless, companies don't typically do that because it decreases employee satisfaction.

**This post was edited on Dec 14th 2020 at 12:42:19pm

RyanvdonkPTO is different, a lot of states have labor laws requiring compensation based on hours worked, even in part time or seasonal positions. so that cannot be taken away. you can be limited in how much you can use during a pay period or work week, but the PTO is actually protected by law.

deathcookieMore ski area employees (especially the more skilled ones) need to unionize and stop being taken advantage of. Ski area workers shouldn't buy into the "it's a privilege" type of bullshit.

eheathL O fuckin L brother.

Its pretty funny that everyone thinks that Vail employees hate working for them, because their college buddy was a lift ops at keystone. Most people who work for Vail like their jobs, make a good wage, get tons of benefits (including skiing) and they aren't that mad they couldn't ski an early season weekend because we have below average snow and a fucking pandemic.

Yung_GnarleyWhat kind of gaper-ass transplant employees are sad about not skiing on an early season weekend in summit county? The lift lines are a shit show. Just ski the other 5 days yo

theabortionatorMeh. Sometimes your days off are your days off. Sometimes a weekend afternoon isn't busy. Sometimes the mtn isnt that bad. If you live right next to the place and feel like getting an hour or two of turns that's way different then leaving denver at 6am to go ski all day. Sometimes the skatepark is crowded but i still skate becauee im there.

Inb4 you haven't even lived in the mountains that long. But either way a kinda of weird take.

I get it, even get what vr is doing, but if somebody lives in a ski town and works at a ski resort so they can ski, they might be bummed they cant ski. It's really not that crazy.

eheathL O fuckin L brother.

Its pretty funny that everyone thinks that Vail employees hate working for them, because their college buddy was a lift ops at keystone. Most people who work for Vail like their jobs, make a good wage, get tons of benefits (including skiing) and they aren't that mad they couldn't ski an early season weekend because we have below average snow and a fucking pandemic.

Craw_DaddyDude, we're talking about seasonal employees, not the people working for corporate in Denver. How much are the lifties making and what benefits do they receive? how bout ski school, rental shops, food and bev, tech shop, sport shop, gift shop, area maintenance, ski patrol, snowmaking, or park crew? Have you ever actually worked in any of those departments? I have either worked in or personally know someone who works in every single one of those departments. Unless Vail does things radically different from the places I've worked, those people don't make very much money and the only benefit they receive is the ability to ski for free. I'd really love for a lifty working for vail to chime in on this conversation, maybe they'd even be cool with what is happening, but they certainly have every right to be pissed.

Craw_DaddyDude, we're talking about seasonal employees, not the people working for corporate in Denver. How much are the lifties making and what benefits do they receive? how bout ski school, rental shops, food and bev, tech shop, sport shop, gift shop, area maintenance, ski patrol, snowmaking, or park crew? Have you ever actually worked in any of those departments? I have either worked in or personally know someone who works in every single one of those departments. Unless Vail does things radically different from the places I've worked, those people don't make very much money and the only benefit they receive is the ability to ski for free. I'd really love for a lifty working for vail to chime in on this conversation, maybe they'd even be cool with what is happening, but they certainly have every right to be pissed.

deathcookieI was offered a job as a ski patroller at Park City in 2016 or 2017. I think the wage was $12 an hour to start, which is about what new employees at the SLC In-N-Out make. .

eheathTo play devils advocate here, a ski pass really isn't worth that much, full epic is $1000 spread over 5 months isn't exactly the largest compensation increase, the difference is less than $2/hr. would you really say $14/hr is better for a seasonal job?

Skier-JonThey can take away employee access whenever they want and they don't even have to tell us. I guess I'm just happy that employees can ski at all this winter, because tbh after I read that this summer I did not have high hopes.

deathcookieOf course $14 is better than $12, but it's still pretty weak. Ski patrollers need to be good skiers, and they also need medical and avalanche knowledge. Surely somebody throwing dynamite onto a mountain to cause an avalanche should be getting paid more than $12 or $14 an hour. Grooming, park building, and ski instructing are other jobs that you need at least some skill to do.

IMO, seasonal employees should be getting paid more due to the seasonal aspect as well. Most seasonal employees lose a few months of pay every year when they are shifting in between jobs.

French seasonal employees love protesting for better conditions and I think that that is admirable. Also, I bet that their pay and benefits are far better than what U.S. ski workers earn.

**This post was edited on Dec 14th 2020 at 3:32:40pm

eheathI think people are unaware too that employees do not have to make reservations, actually a huge thing this year TBH.

Skier-JonYeah I had very low expectations for employee access this year and they really impressed me when they announced that. I was glad to be proven wrong. TBH I hate to be out here defending Vail but all the people complaining about employee access being restricted for one weekend early in the season were already bitching about Vail before this news came out and will keep bitching in the future. I worked full time at PC last year and I can tell you right now any employee who is actually a ski bum would not care about this because they already avoid skiing on weekends as much as possible. Even employees who only work a day or two a week for the free pass work on weekends because they would not provide enough value to the company to employ them if they worked just one midweek day. There are plenty of things that Vail does that upset me but this just aint it cuz.

bennwithtwonsone other note - have you skied in france? there are a ton of ski bums there too and i don't remember seeing the lifties driving expensive cars or eating at high-end restaurants. they're doing the same stuff that north american ski bums are doing - sacrificing higher pay and better living conditions so that they can pursue their passion. there are a finite number of really good resort jobs and as a result, most people are in it for the lifestyle if they continue to work seasonally year after year.