7 replies to this topic

[Kelly]

Lack of contract forces Intrawest owned Tremblants' service workers to strike.

Story with more background
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/stor...24ee10a&k=41658

Video of Tremblant spokeperson plus text
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...1217?hub=Canada

Interesting 3rd world ski resort
Mt. Phonkanrazi area workers forced to build road
http://www.irrawaddy...sp?a=5263&z=153

[Emax]

Ka-boom. It works.

[chasl]

Lets see what everyone thinks.
Personally I feel unions are the worst thing that can come into a Ski area. while some of you think it is the best way to get the wage up I feel that there are more negatives with a union in place. I worked my way up to a decent wage by furthering my education and training. And many years of work.
A few days ago someone in a post stated that they are sick and tired of training someone and then they leave after 3 or 4 years. But really, are you, after that time offering them something new to learn or are you going over the same things. Truthfully I lasted around 4 years in an area and then I felt like I was in a rut and would move on. In this manner I increased my worth. When I went to a new area my wage increased and I continued to learn which again increased my personal value. Disagree if you want but it has worked for me, and I can tell you I earn more than if I were in a union, where you will make a maximum to what is contracted, not what you are worth. With proper training and education you can earn more than a union can offer, without all of the negatives. Keep in mind while the strike is ongoing they are not being paid.

[liftmech]

I agree with most of what you're saying, but what happens if your employers aren't willing to pay you what you're worth even when you have experience and training? Is that when you, as you say, move on?

[chasl]

liftmech, on Dec 20 2005, 11:20 AM, said:

I agree with most of what you're saying, but what happens if your employers aren't willing to pay you what you're worth even when you have experience and training? Is that when you, as you say, move on?

I did run into that situation at one time, but where I was I felt I could learn a lot from the people from at this area.
So I stayed on and actually before long the money did come up. But if you are in an area where you feel as you are in a rut and not learning anything, why would you want to stay in this position. I firmly believe you have to enjoy where you are working or two things happen 1- you are now just working a job. 2- if you do not enjoy where you are, you are not doing your best work and doing yourself and your employer a disservice.

Remember we are working in a customer based industry whether you are front line or behind the scenes, your attitude will be noticed by the customer at some time.
But to answer your question if you are in that situation, you have to decide what is best for you at that moment, and for your future, if you have decided this is what you want to do with the rest of your life.
But as you most have noticed this industry is addictive, I tried to leave it once and could not.

[Emax]

"I feel unions are the worst thing that can come into a Ski area."

I doubt that you'll find much disagreement with that on this site. The entire notion of Unions runs counter to the grain of most folks that find themselves in this industry. What many here are looking for is a change in attitude on behalf of the resorts they are employed by; a sense of recognition, defined only in part by a beter wage.

"I worked my way up to a decent wage by furthering my education and training. And many years of work."

So have many of us - and like yourself, we no longer depend solely on a resort salary. The problem being discussed here is that a majority of people work themselves up and out of the maintenance department to positions where they feel more appreciated. This leaves many maintenance departments with a constant supply of "green" help that will also "move on" as soon as they blossom. I'm fairly sure that as a management type for Cetec Doppelmayr, you do not miss your earlier mechanic years very much.

"Truthfully I lasted around 4 years in an area and then I felt like I was in a rut and would move on."

And when you "moved on", who did your former employer replace you with? Someone with ten years experience? I doubt it - he probably got someone who would accept considerably less than you were making... for a while.

"But if you are in an area where you feel as you are in a rut and not learning anything, why would you want to stay in this position."

...the problem defined.

[Kelly]

AAP – press report
By Ryan B
One Strike Too Many Forces Candian Mountian To Relocate

In a stunning announcement reported today in the web site skilifts.org, Mt. Tremblant representative Fournier Uveay Klaudey IV said due to lower than expected profits and the local unions unwillingness to bargain faithfully they would have to relocate their mountain to China.
Tremblants representative F.U.K. unrolled the blue prints to the barge that would transport the mountain to China (which were even more impressive than F.U.K.s well proportioned "assistant" in this reporters eyes).
When asked how long it would take to finish to relocation F.U.K. said vereee sooon as we have just finished building the barge in China. "It is simply a matter of loosening the giant wing nuts that hold the mountain down and we should soon have it loaded", F.U.K. said.
This reporter noticed that F.U.K apparently was reading from cue cards made from overtime requests of the former service workers.
When I asked F.U.K. to comment on the correlation between the sharply raising steel prices in North America and the construction of the enormous barge, he glanced at his cue card and said, "I feel it was a "win-win" situation for my company". The rather perplexed reporters from the press conference all came to the conclusion that some how the Doonesbury reporter Roland Burton Hedley III had actually metamorphosed into a real person.
A quick exchange of heated words was overheard just offstage of the podium and then Chairman Of the Board John Overstreet Bensonn III quickly stepped to the podium. C.O.B. J.O.B. said "the new paradigm in the industry is here and we are going to do all we can to meet those challenges".
At this point the interview session was terminated by C.O.B. J.O.B.s assistant (even better proportioned than F.U.K.s assistant) and we were presented with a prepared press statement (ironically recycled from employee grievance forms).
The future for the service workers in the Tremblant area is now up in the air. Whether they choose to remain and work at the soon to be built Super WalMart at the now leveled spot that was Mt. Tremblant is a choice they will have to make.
Normal Ski Areas for Apathy (N.S.A.A.) chairman Lemont Zachary Yanford II was asked a few questions on the transpiring events surounding Tremblant at his industry furnished office in the trendy Ostentatious Overlook subdivision of Aspen.
L.Z.Y. said, "I am a personal friend of C.O.B. J.O.B. we were roommates back in the Ivy League days, what ever is best for him is best for the industry and it's shifting paradigms – we hope to have a market analysis of the situation that we can offer to our 323 members soon".
Outside market analysts' of the Tremblant situation say frankly striking on days that the company makes 5% per day of its yearly profits is a close analogy to having your nuts in a vice. "Tremblants only recourse was to relocate off shore" said the market analyst.
In an exclusive interview of a striking ski Lift Mechanic Dan "Derail" Smith was quite revealing to this reporter. "Derail" a tall man with a chiseled face and barrel chest said "the cultural history of Canada's union workers is so much different than you would see in the states; your perspective of the question is going down the wrong trail ay". "Derail" also said "Canada's Tramway Regional Aerial Ministry (T.R.A.M.) was now going to shut down the area for failing to provide adequate staff for any evacuation of their longer lifts ay". "Derails" perspective of the situation was more insightful than one could imagine as he left me with this gem of a quote, "the long hours that the supervisors are pulling are the very reason the unions were formed in the first place".
Derail was last seen walking down the street singing O Canada and sipping a Labatts beer – which incidentally is made by union service workers.

[Emax]

My dear clandestine news correspondent:

I am sure that to you this is all a pleasant prank - a whimsy, perhaps a phantasm, designed and intended to titilate the sensitivities of the common ropeway grease monkey. Little do you know or imagine the malicious and insidious ramifications of your jest. Do you not realize that if such people are elevated as you suggest the very roots of the mountain real estate boom will be jeopardized? Consider the effect on the national market alone: Wall Street strewn with the dead and dying; bodies plummeting like ripe fruit onto the pavement. I beg you, leap before you rashly look. Remember the immortal words of Abraham Lincoln: "You can fool all of the people some of the time - and some of the time all of the people - but you can't time all the fools into being all of the Lincolns." I think he said that at Bar Mitzvah in Detroit.