Ski Industry Faces Labor Headaches

[bvibert]

Agree with points 1 and 2. Point 3, though, is different- insurance companies wouldn't have to charge such high premiums if people weren't suing [insert litigateable class here].

Not sayign insurance companies re all benign andaltruistic, but they do figure out their costs pretty tightly and charge to cover it.

2 out of 3 aint bad. I see your point, I think.

The point I was trying to get across was that the premiums wouldn't be as high if people weren't suing...

 

[ctenidae]

The point I was trying to get across was that the premiums wouldn't be as high if people weren't suing...

That I'll agree with.:beer:

 

[marcski]

Back to the original topic at hand....

http://3w.skipressworld.com/news_de...on~news~type~news~mode~read~filter~~sort~.php

 

[marcski]

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2983

Do you think that we, as skiers, will see any effects from this visa issue?

 

[ctenidae]

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2983

Do you think that we, as skiers, will see any effects from this visa issue?

Resort employees probably won't talk English as good anymore.

 

[tcharron]

If you mean all resort employees, then you'd be paying a lot more $$$.

A few issues.

1) There isn't enough money to raise most of the wages to a 'living wage'

2) Many of the jobs are, all said and done, very simplistic. Even if the wages were good, the work itself is not something one would make a career out of.

3) There isn't enough money to give every worker (esp. the part time and/or seasonal jobs) health/dental/retirement benefits.

4) The jobs are seasonal. While many in the industry either have summer jobs or collect unemployment, carrying two season jobs results in a lot of risk. There isn't much that can be done, either, to create year round positions for a large bulk of ski area jobs.


It's going to take major changes in the overall structure of the industry to ever make it a place to make a career for those who aren't in upper management. There's a reason working in the industry is called 'taking a vow of poverty'

How many of those jobs could be filled by high school kids? It might be an interesting notion to let them work on the cheap, but give them access to the mountain. Little incentive maybe?

It's a conceptual idea, NO idea what it would really cost compared to flying in immigrant workers.

 

[tcharron]

Yeah right...alot of skiers and riders are space cadets and don't know when it's their turn to load resulting in empty chairs or worse..two groups trying to get on one chair..

HEY! I only did that ONCE last year!

 

[threecy]

How many of those jobs could be filled by high school kids? It might be an interesting notion to let them work on the cheap, but give them access to the mountain. Little incentive maybe?

It's a conceptual idea, NO idea what it would really cost compared to flying in immigrant workers.

It's hard to fill the jobs with high school employees nowadays because of a) reliability b) hours regulations c) hours available d) needing to be 18 to run a lift or adjust bindings.

 

[ski_resort_observer]

It's hard to fill the jobs with high school employees nowadays because of a) reliability b) hours regulations c) hours available d) needing to be 18 to run a lift or adjust bindings.

In addition, many HS kids want to work after school and since the mountain closes by 4PM each day they are more interested in working at the local mall or other places that are open till 9/10PM.

 

[threecy]

In addition, many HS kids want to work after school and since the mountain closes by 4PM each day they are more interested in working at the local mall or other places that are open till 9/10PM.

See option c) above Also plays into the whole college kid thing too - they say they'll working all season etc., but for some strange reason once January rolls around, they're MIA!