"Sickout" protest at Breckenridge Ski Resort staged over Colorado employee housing living conditions
Breckenridge Ski Resort employees living in employee housing recently staged a silent protest by calling out sick, citing freezing temperatures, lack of hot water, and in some instances no heat in their apartments.
A photo of ice forming inside one of the employees' rooms at the Breckenridge Terrace Apartments was sent to CBS Colorado.
These employees, responsible for keeping the mountain running smoothly for visitors, did not want to be identified but told CBS Colorado that many of them have been submitting maintenance requests for months. But their pleas to their parent company to intervene have largely fallen on deaf ears.
Wednesday, Vail Resorts was able to backfill the employees who called out sick with local workers from other resorts and said, while there were rumors only one lift was spinning for visitors, that's not true. The resort app showed the resort topped out at 25/35 lifts open. Some of those were closed due to weather conditions, not employee staffing issues.
Still, the statement from employees reverberated through the local community, with some locals taking to social media to remind people "not to ski Breck today," to show their support for the workers.
Vail Resorts, the parent company of Breckenridge Ski Resort, acknowledged the issue in a statement.
"Summit County, Colorado has had extreme cold temperatures. As a result, some of our team members in employee housing have experienced heat and hot water issues. This is completely unacceptable, and mechanical work is in progress to address that. We have offered alternate lodging to every person on our team who is impacted, and we are waiving their housing fees for this time. We have had some Breckenridge team members call in sick today, and we support anyone on our team who needs to take the day off to care for their health or who needs to relocate to the alternate lodging that we are providing. Breckenridge Ski Resort is open and operating today. As always, current lift and terrain status is available on the website, including the current weather hold on our Imperial lift."
– Jon Copeland, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Breckenridge Ski Resort
Despite the company's statement, employees remain frustrated. Some stated they remain without consistent heat and hot water a day later. One employee described a long backlog of maintenance requests, including issues with holes in the walls and black mold on top of the recent heating and hot water problems.
The employee also expressed disappointment with the company's initial response, stating "The least they could do is act like they cared, but they didn't even do that." He said when a resident asked the housing office for a space heater, he was given a desk sized space heater for his entire apartment.
Employees credit media attention as part of the reason Vail Resorts has begun addressing the issues. Maintenance crews are working to fix things at the Breckenridge Terrace Apartments. The same employee CBS Colorado spoke with agreed things are getting better now.