23:18 in Breen Ridge um for this year's United Mountain Workers Convention. So, thank you all for making it here. Um couple introductory things. Uh I guess first thing is we're calling this thing to order. There's coffee as you guys found. Um when it runs out, it's gone. Um, bathrooms and water are down the hall. We're going to try our best to keep this thing on timeline as we start here at 10:15. Um, so bear with us. You you understand how this goes. This is something that we do once a year. So, one day a year we got to, you know, we we do this and I know that we get restless legs easily. Um, definitely there is flexibility to get up, take take a break if we need to take recesses or whatever. Um, just say the word and we'll we'll figure it out. Okay. Um, the other thing that I want to say is let's just all like 24:19 focus on being safe here on this trip. Like we're all a lot of folks are coming from out of town right now and we're all going to have a good time and that's great and I just really want to encourage you all to take advantage of the public transportation options that exist here. Uh, we can get you more details about that. just like everyone, please be safe. We the last thing we want is for somebody to get hurt or get in trouble um at this event. And uh on that note, also please treat your service workers like royalty. Um these people are struggling just like everybody else in these towns, in these communities that we're coming from. Uh please tip like a union member, wear your union gear, be proud of it, and show let's let's make a good showing in in the community that we're in this weekend. Um, we're going to jump right into it. We have we have a program of speakers and I'm going to go first. Um, so here's your here's your annual State of the Union. Uh, you can bet I'm just as 25:20 prepared as last year. Um, for those of you that I haven't met, uh, you know, thank you for being here. Like, this turnout is amazing and we continue to to just up the bar in our engagement with with this union. Uh my name's Max McIll. I'm I'm the local president. This is my third year serving in this role and my third time uh giving you all a speech at our annual meeting. So I'm I'm just really grateful to be here. Um I've been a Park City ski patroller for the last 11 years and have been a union member for that duration of time. I've gotten involved with that group in various ways over the years and it's really just been a total pleasure to just kind of fall in love with organized labor and and the labor scene and to be able to serve a community that means so much to me in this way. Um, this has honestly just been like one of the greatest gifts of my life to to be able to serve this group in this way. And uh 26:22 sometimes you don't realize what your dreams are until later in your life. And and I certainly feel that way about what I'm doing here and about this movement that that we're all a part of. Um there's a lot of people to thank for pulling this event together. Um I want to first go with our guy in the back. He'll be modest. Ryan Denine. Um, yeah, Ryan, Ryan was the glue that pulled this thing together completely. And, uh, certainly we wouldn't all be here in this space without Ryan and and just the work that he's done for our union. Um, I just want to give an extra special shout out to to Mr. Denine. Um, please show him your gratitude. I also want to shout out uh, Loveland Ski Patrol, Zack Newton in the back live streaming it up. What up, Zack? Yeah, Zack Zach is using an incredibly small percentage of his brain power in 27:23 order to pull off this thing that I would have no chance at. Um and and I just want to you know give him the utmost uh thank you and and gratitude from all of us because uh it's rare that we find uh techy people in our business and we need to hold them as tight as we can. Um but Zach's going to be running the AV. He's doing the live stream. Uh members are able to watch from home. uh we have just like leveled up this this year's convention compared to previous years and and a big part of that is thanks to Zach. So, thank you, Zach. Um I want to thank everybody who works here locally in Summit County in in these bargaining units for opening up their homes, their driveways, their couches, whatever to folks from out of town that need a place to crash. Um, that's that's a big ask to do for any stranger and it just demonstrates the the implicit 28:25 camaraderie and solidarity that we feel with each other to open up your homes to strangers. So, thank you all. Um, I also want to thank people who took off of work uh made alternative plans to get themselves here to a place that's not super easy to get to for a lot of us, right? this this was a long drive and everybody that traveled uh committed themselves to coming here and being a part of this for the weekend and not something else and you could have chosen to do anything else and and I think that deserves a great deal of gratitude and you all deserve just like a lot of credit from yourselves. Um be be proud to be supporting this right now right here. Um because this is how we get stronger. Our engagement and togetherness has come a really long way and we're geographically dispersed to say the least. We are so used to slogging away on Zoom and it's so impersonal for those 29:25 of us that that have that work together in this way and we we build friendships over Zoom but we never know how tall the other person is and like you know it's it's really hard to to exist in this way and to run not just you know it's not a business like this is a movement and we're running a movement this way where camaraderie and solidarity are so important and yet we have to do it over computer screens. for 99% of the time. So, here we are together. I just want to urge you all if you do anything with this weekend is to celebrate with each other and to celebrate us. It is so cool that we all get to be together in in the same space. And I really just hope that you all take full advantage of that. Make friends in other bargaining units. This is how we get stronger. And I just want everyone to leave here wanting to run it back again next year. And like they've got more of a shared community of interest with all of their colleagues here in this union than they did before. 30:31 Um, I wanna I want to just talk, this might be repetition for some of you, but I want to give just some like basic stats about our union. Um, before we get into kind of what we've done over the last year, we represent,00 workers and 18 bargaining units at 14 ski and snowboard resorts in four different states. Kind of a mouthful, right? I think that exemplifies that this [ __ ] ain't easy. We're currently bargaining at three different bargaining units. Fighting for a successor contract for ski patrollers at Whitefish and our and we're bargaining first contracts with bike patrollers at Keystone and Park City. Our membership has more than doubled in size since 2019. Despite that rapid growth, we've been able to focus inward and become stronger to the point where our membership percentage across all bargaining units is right around 90%. 31:33 You guys hear that, right? Yeah. Okay. 90% membership across 18 bargaining units. This is something that in the union world is tough to come by. Um, you all should be very proud of yourselves and the work that we've done. I want to talk a bit about the year that we've had. We were together last October in Telluride and and we talked about the year that we've had before that and and now we're going to talk about what's happened since and it's kind of a lot. You know, the fall rolls around every year pretty reliably. The leaves start changing, the temperature starts dropping, and if we're not under contract, our bosses, if they're smart, start to sweat a little bit, maybe get a little tick in their step, right? They get a little bit nervous. This leverage that we have materialized last fall. We won hard-fought first contracts at Aldora and Whitefish and heavy-hitting successor contracts at 32:35 Steamboat, Big Sky, and Breenidge. All between the months of October and December. This continues to demonstrate itself and I'm happy to announce that patrollers at Arapjo Basin after 15 months of bargaining 15 months of bargaining. They have been put through the ringer by this company, but they have a ratification and a contract that's going to meaningfully change the lives of all of their members. And I'm just really, really proud that they were able to get that done. 33:12 That brings us to to the big one from last year. And for the second year in a row on December 27th, uh, United Mountain Workers members went on strike for better wages. >> You're never getting one, Gary. Not when you're with us. Christmas is busy season, baby. Um, the 68 members of Tellide Ski Patrol showed their unity and strength by walking off the job and doing everything they could to be transparent and materially supportive for each other and their community. The company showed its weakness by closing, showing their complete apathy for the health of their workers and the town they claim to care so much about. After nearly two weeks of unneeded pain, the company came to the table and gave in to the patrollers's demands and the strike was won. The strike caused a huge deal of stress 34:13 for all of the patrollers that were affected. I'd like to ask our tellide patrollers to please stand up. 34:30 The poise and dedication to doing what was right that you all showed was nothing short of inspiring and admirable. We're all lucky to be able to work with a team with the skill and commitment to our cause that you all have. One more time, can we please give them like a huge round of applause? These workers mean the world to us. 35:00 I want to move on and talk about some of the challenges that we're facing because there's some that are obvious and some that maybe are a little more complicated. You know, the obvious is that our employers continue to treat our communities like prey and treat our workforces like prey, extracting as much revenue as they can. capitalizing on our care for each other and leaving conditions in the working class in mountain towns desperate if not impossible. We also face community level dysfunction. Private equity has bought property in our communities to the po to the point of creating a housing crisis. I'm going to back this up with some statistics that I've got kind of canned up about Park City. Since 2019, the average value of a home in Park City, has increased over a hund% to over $2 million. The average home value in Summit County, 36:02 Utah, where Park City is located, is $1.5 million. At the same time, the average income for hourly workers is under $40,000 annually. Let's add one more stat just to make this a little bit more desperate. In Park City, 80% of residences are classified as vacant or short-term rentals. As you expand to Summit County, the amount of inaccessible housing for locals only drops to 60%. 60% of homes in the county with this size of a workforce are inaccessible to those workers. The bottom line is that our city and county governments in combination with greedridden realtors associations have sold us all out in the name of short-term insecure wealth. This is bad policy. That's all this is. And it's really bad 37:04 and it can leave us feeling hopeless and desperate and like we're having to scramble just to make ends meet. But I think we have a chance. I think we have a chance to fight this in a meaningful way if we continue to organize from within. We need to double down on our excellent membership density to build better engagement, arming ourselves with the capacity and the members that are active to fight on multiple fronts. We have influence in our communities and at our resorts. We need to own that. We've spent the last few years rightfully being focused on building our own bandwidth and focusing within But it's time for us to step out of the shadows and engage these problems on the working class level. And so in practice, what can that look like? Right? It's easy to say, maybe 38:05 harder to do. I have a couple ideas. Let's organize more aggressively. We, the,00 members of United Mountain Workers, have been the drivers of positive change for an entire industry. It's time for us to challenge our colleagues in other departments and at other resorts to step up and join us. If we want to address the root of our problems, we're going to need more of us. Engage with your communities and local government. We're used to fighting our employers exclusively, but the solution to our housing crisis is in the hands of local government, whether we like it or not. Let's turn this crisis into community level campaigns. Let's show up to local events, build support systems for community members, and make our demands for fair housing clear to the community and to those with 39:06 the power to create change. We will need the full diversity of our local workforces in order to win this fight. Lastly, let's go win bigger. We've gotten a lot of awesome wins over the last several years, and that's and that's really cool. And I just want to challenge you all to think bigger. We've gotten wages and benefits that have changed people's lives in substantive real ways whether they're in a union or not working across this industry. How much bigger can we go? That's my question. Like what do you what do you guys think we can get? Can we what about paid for year round health care? What about a pension? What about a seat on the board of the goddamn company? >> Right? Like what do we want? Because if we maximize on the leverage that we have, I believe any of that and more is 40:08 possible. Any good speech should end with a call to action. And here's mine for you all. first is to take care of yourselves. This work is challenging and stressful and and the work that we do during our winter season, during our summer season, all of it is stressful and takes a toll on these communities. The mental health crisis in mountain towns should not be disregarded. even though we often find ourselves on the front lines needing to care so much more about someone else's health rather than our own. So, please just like get back to the basics. Eat colorful food, drink lots of water, 41:08 eight hours of sleep, maybe seven, that's fine. Like, these basics will help us sustain this movement. That's what we need from each other. My second ask is to take care of each other. Be forgiving of each other when we have moments of weakness. Check in with your co-workers about their stress levels. I know that there are some groups that that use the stress continuum and some groups that kind of laugh it off and other groups that have their own internal processes. What I do know is that we could all do better. And so challenge yourselves to step up for you and your co-workers and do one little thing better to help support each other. The last is to support your union. We are all one part of this union. No member of this union is worth more 42:10 more than one. And we need as many of these parts to be engaged in this struggle to maximize on what we can accomplish. Hold your leaders accountable, but also be a part of the solution. Believe in what we're fighting for. I believe so much in what we're fighting for. And I believe that the possibilities in front of this group are only limited by our own imagination. And I just want to thank you all because I'm continually inspired by this membership and and the community that I get to just be one part of. Uh so thank you all. I hope you guys enjoy the rest of the day. 43:18 Sorry. 43:30 >> All right. Thanks, guys. That part's over. Thank God. I got to play MC for the day. Uh, so we're just going to keep this thing rolling. Um, we've got a couple more speakers. Um, first I want to shout out an officer that's not here today. Um, Thomas Pierman is our secretary and a crest of lift mechanic. Uh, Thomas and his wife just welcomed their first child into the world uh, last week. Um, so please, you know, raise a glass for him or whatever. Uh, but don't bother him. He's busy. Um, I just want to say about Thomas that he's he's just been really excellent to work with over the last year as secretary and and in his time as an officer with Crest Lift Maintenance. Um, he believes in this fight and is so quick to just take on special assignments to help us continue moving forward. He's such an asset to to this 44:30 union and I just want to give a lot of credit to Thomas Pier. 44:43 Yeah, big up to that, huh? 44:58 >> Yep. Our next speaker is your vice president, Jackie Carney. Jackie and I have been working together for three years. Uh, in that time, Jackie built a house, continued to grow her own landscaping business while working as a full-time forecaster for the Tellide Ski Patrol, and managing to be impactful for our union as secretary of Tellide Ski Patrol and vice president of United Mountain Workers. Where do you get that energy, Jackie? It's it's very clear to me that Jackie is destined for great things. Her work ethic, humility, and fierce loyalty to her community are inspiring and have made her an asset to our team. It's been a privilege to work with her, and it's my privilege to introduce your United Mountain Workers Vice President, Jackie Carney. 46:21 Hi everyone. Um, my strong suit's definitely not animated speaking, so it's tough to follow Max up, but I'll do my best. And Um, I really just wanted to talk about how far I've seen this union grow in the last three years while I've been in my position. Um, I remember pretty clearly three years ago when we had this meeting in or I guess two years ago in Park City. um we were especially uh somewhat on the brink of disillusion and disorganization and it's been pretty amazing to see how much that's changed. Um thanks to Max, thanks to Anna um our first treasurer and now Blake Thomas um all the people in this executive board. Um, we spent nearly the second day of that that first meeting with us as officers just trying to sort out the basics of where our dues had gone and where they were going. Um, so if you're 47:22 newer to the union, know that, you know, our financial security right now, it hasn't always been that way. Um, and that's created a lot of power for us. Um, thanks to all of those guys, we're now a pretty dialed unit in that way. And I want to preface this by also saying I'm going to speak from the perspective of a ski patroller because that's been my own experience. Um, but I'm so grateful for the lift maintenance portion of this membership and I'm really excited to see that grow as well. I think from our perspective as patrollers, your job is so crazy and um, you guys also are an essential portion of operation every day and obviously things wouldn't turn without you. Um, we couldn't also couldn't have made it anywhere close to where we are without the unwavering commitment Max has made to this unit over the past two years. If you don't know Max that well, um, he pretty much spends every free moment he has working on this to his own 48:24 detriment sometimes. So, I just want to give him a big thank you and little round of applause. Not going to make you stand up, but Um yeah, he's really dedicated his life to this unit and he's made it something that I think um I had never seen in my role at Telluride before this and um now we have this real strength and backbone behind our bargaining unit and the rest of the bargaining units. Um and this capacity to grow that I'm excited to see. Um, we also couldn't have made it anywhere close to where we are with um without our excellent organizer Ryan all the way in the back. Um, and our union rep, Gary Jordan, who's travels all over to help us. And I can speak personally from our 49:25 experience last year with Gary that he was essential and having him in the room with us um with Teresa was what we needed. Um and you know she's gone now. It was great. >> No, she's just dead to us. Um, sorry. Um, you know, we were talking about on our way up here yesterday, me, um, Graham and Tony in the car, just about some praise we've received externally, which is nice for us to hear after kind of a tenuous fall last fall. So, I wanted to share some of that with all of you guys. Um, just last week, I was at the international snow science workshop. Alo is there with a lot of patrols unionized and non-unionized in Whistler. Um, and what I heard over and 50:26 over again directly and indirectly through my co-workers, including my supervisor who is there, was, "Thank you for all the work you've done. You've made a huge difference in our wages." And um, we're seeing these companies come to the table and give us what we want. Even the non-unionized patrols. um everyone's seeing the benefits of our organizing efforts in this industry and that couldn't have happened um without all of you guys being brave enough to stand up for what you're worth. I even had last last week had a 35 year patroller um from our unit tell me that the raise they received last season was the first one him and his wife who's also a patroller had received in their tenure that actually made a difference in their life. Um and that was pretty cool to hear. Um this all of this progress would not be possible without the support and unity of this local as a whole. Um the 51:29 understanding we have of each other, our unique skill sets, and how necessary we are in this somewhat elitist industry. My hope is that we can continue to leverage this as we grow our membership in the coming years. Um, and as Max said the other day when we were talking about where this thing can go is we really have the keys to the car. And I don't want anyone to forget that in this room. I think what our bosses and management is realizing, um, it's taken them a long time to get there, but they're realizing that when we walk away, any of us, that they can't run their business. Um, you know, find me an avalanche worker run willing to run a route um, cold without seeing it before, you know, respond to a trauma incident on a mountain they don't have memorized. um or a mechanic willing to work 60 feet in the air in wind and snow. Um it's pretty hard to replace us and I think this is our biggest strength. I want to 52:29 see us continue to capitalize on this unity and our specific skill sets um as we both connect with our local communities and insulate ourselves from needing support um from outside of our local here. I think we do a really good job of taking care of ourselves and um leaning into our strengths. I'm excited to see we're supporting both our current membership um and supporting all of the communities that go along with us as long as well as bringing in new members over the next seasons will take us. Um I also would like to end with a call to action which would be sorry um I don't want any of us to be afraid to engage with our communities. That was my biggest takeaway from our experience in Tellide uh last year is that you're not going to get everyone to engage with you, but the person who you can explain 53:31 your truth to and kind of change their mind and get them on board. Um there's nothing like making that kind of conversion with someone. And it's okay if someone's not going to agree with you. These are really hard places to live. Um And I just, you know, also want us all to try and remember that. Um, and in that way kind of not take that, uh, disagreement personally. Um, you know, we we experienced a lot of vitrial last season. I and really in reflecting pretty hard on that over the last year, I think a lot of that is coming from um just people's own fear and stress and trying to exist in these communities. And we need to do our to bring all those people in and make them understand that if we're all in this together, we're a lot stronger. That's all I've got. 54:34 >> Thank you guys. 54:44 >> One more time for Jackie, please. 54:56 I've been really fortunate over these years to meet and work with so many different unions and and labor leaders. And over that time, I've found myself particularly inspired by those working in the public sector. While we in the private sector have the National Labor Relations Act and the right to collectively bargain as a rulebook. Public sector unions are having to fight publicly for everything. They're creating effective resistance in massive workplaces around issues that affect their workers the most. Our last speaker for the morning is a local leader who I look up to. Jade Kelly is the president of CWA7799 which represents several public sector unions across the front range from campus workers at University of Colorado and Colorado State to Boulder counter 55:58 county employees to health care workers, public defenders, library workers and more. Local 7799 has demonstrated they are willing to struggle publicly in order to grow outward and strengthen their current membership. Jade Kelly leads this struggle from the front. She coordinates collective action with strategic vision that has actually changed public policies. She uses the powerful democracy of 7799 members and turns it into meaningful actions and results that make life easier for public workers. Jade cares so deeply for the working class and we are just so lucky to have her here today. And so without further ado, it is my privilege to introduce to you my friend and one of my inspirations, the president of your favorite union's favorite union, Jade Kelly. 57:11 Give it up for Max Miguel. Come on. I am very excited to be here today. I'm going to start with some gratitude and then like two apologies, three apologies maybe. Whoa. I guess four apologies. That's getting some feedback. Um, United Mountain Workers has been like one of the most inspirational campaigns I have seen in my entire, you know, short life. I'm only 14 years old, so you know, it's I've been still looking around, but um, just seeing you organize mountain after mountain after mountain. Where you guys at now? Like 50 [ __ ] one. Is that real? Can someone tell me what the real number is? >> 18. >> Someone's lying. 42 42 mountains. Okay, I exaggerate. Incredibly impressive. And you're taking on some of the richest [ __ ] in the entire world. And you're doing it in a fearless manner in a way that needs to be done in one in 58:12 some of the hardest places to w live in some of the hardest, you know, precarious working conditions. I used to be a mountain worker in Arizona at Snowball. I was guest services doing my best to steal money from the boss and then I moved over to ski school trying to I don't know teach children that falling down is fun. I don't know what I was trying to do there. Um now with the apologies I have to leave at like 12:15 to go back to Denver and that's going to seem rude. I got to go. They got like a big trans rights rally and we're doing our best to like fight for civil rights and human rights today and so I'm doing a lot today but I did not want to MISS THIS TODAY. I WAS NOT EXPECTING APPLAUSE FOR THE APOLOGY. The other apology is I wrote this slide deck last night. I was a little high. Um there's definitely some typos. So forgive me for the poor jokes and um actually can I have them hit refresh because I was editing while I 59:13 was there in there with the just like refresh on the browser. Did it work? Unite Mountain Workers biggest fan. Yay. See, I'm changing it as it goes. All right. Um, how do I move to the next slide? Oh, I got a little clicker. Look at this. Where do I point it? There it goes. Okay. What is 7799? Um, we are your favorite union's favorite union. We've got seven unions with inside of our local uh we didn't ex exist more than six years ago. And we started as a graduate student union. I'm not a graduate student ever. I'm a bachelorette. I don't have an advanced degree. a university staff member. I've been working at CU Boulder for the past 12 years. Um, but I wanted in um I was a co-chair of staff council. It was like the equivalent of the company union. Um, and we desperately needed a labor union, especially to make the boss say yes when he wants to say no. Um, and one of the ways that we started talking with the graduate student union at the time was how do we build power in a way that is 1:00:16 insurmountable? Really taking on not only the employer in our state, but the tech oligarchs who have taken over public higher education, the wararm mongers who taken public higher education, the richest men who have work to take over our conference rooms and our budgets. Um, and the way we've decided to look at it, and we saw a really great model in the south, which was United Campus Workers. Um, they've been organizing in states that did not have the right to collectively bargain. Um, and they were building wall-to-wall models, faculty, staff, graduate, undergraduate workers, everyone with a paycheck, saying, "Our fight is bigger than one job classification." While tenure track faculty and minimum wage workers might not make sense in a bargaining unit, we are all have the same boot on our neck and it's about time we start acting like it. And we have started doing that. And the second we started organizing, we never thought this would happen. But then Denver Health workers were like, "Hell yeah, we want in on that. We needed to start organizing as well. Jussi Health workers, Denver Public Library workers. 1:01:19 Six years later, we've added seven full unions. Pikes Peak Library Workers United down south in Colorado Springs, the Defenders Union of Colorado for workers in the state public defender system. Um Boulder County Employees Union. And the thing that unites, you know, a public defender in steamboats, a Denver Health nurse um who's just got off two 12-hour shifts in a row. um a library worker down in uh you know Colorado Springs who's you know on the discord in the stacks is that we are all uniquely [ __ ] by Colorado labor law. Um as Max mentioned we have been excluded in the Colorado labor peace act that workers in the state died and fought for. Um but we were those at that time made a decision a political decision that public sector workers were too hard to fight for in that moment and we were excluded from the right to collectively bargain the right to file for a union election. Some of our bargaining units we are at majority so we're calling it premajority unionism and we're at majority um but we don't 1:02:21 have the ability to do it. That being said we have transformed our workplaces. We have transformed our state and the power of a union is not just you know, permission from our employer, permission from laws to build power. It it is the simple truth that is co-workers coming together, uniting um under collective action and fighting the boss. And so that is what our spirit is and that's what we've been able to do. So what does a Denver Oh my god. No. Oh no. Go back. It's okay. Uh what does a Oh, I gotta do better. Okay. Uh, what does a Denver uh, library union have to do with United Mountain Workers? It's a mean question. Um, but it's everything because we've been able to build power past the traditional ways that the NLRB that certain bargaining units, certain restrictions we've seen with inside of unions that have been largely a compromise in this country in a way that has been able to transform laws. both 1:03:22 Boulder County and Denver Public Library Workers United, we never knew that we were going to get the right to collectively bargain. We were told by many unions um that talk to us when you get the right to collectively bargain. Well, guess what? We're not going to get it unless we start unionizing. So, that's why we found CWA. That's why we started organizing and that is where we started building that power and um we were able to really shift this. Building wallto-w wall also allows us to move past those arbitrary job classification attacks not just you know our direct supervisor but the oligarchs who are really privatizing our entire public services and as I mentioned we're not asking for permission we can create the power the work power to create change bargaining units workplace in our workplaces so that our jobs and our institutions are funded and treated as essential and I want to just talk really briefly about one of our biggest campaigns that we said recently we changed the law in Denver and we did it by going directly to the voters. We got 1:04:23 the strongest version of collective bargaining in the public sector in the state of Colorado with strike rights for 15,000 municipal employees. It is one of the strongest um versions of public sector collective bargaining in the country. And we did it with library workers and knocking on 35,000 doors. A lot of people told us we were crazy, that we were doing it irresponsibly. And we said, "Fuck that. We're tired of waiting. We know what it takes to win, and we are going to bring as many people as we possibly can. And that includes the community." And not only were we right, but we were right by a big margin. We won by a two to one victory. And we got double the amount of yes votes, the double amount of no votes. Even after organizing for five years, even after changing the law, the library commission continued to delay, delay, delay, and then they voted unanimously to refuse to accept our card check even 1:05:24 though we got it into to you, the Denver Collective Bargaining Law. Even though we had 75% of Denver Public Library workers on cards, showing that the boss is going to break the [ __ ] law. Showing the reason why we need to have big ass bargaining. The reason why we took that poison as our antidote and we smiled because we knew we were going to win. We got all of those votes within like a couple of days. I have never seen anything like it. And we just won Denver Public Library Workers United with 96% yes across 38 branches across the city of Denver and an overwhelming victory. And I am so [ __ ] proud. So why does this matter to y'all? Some of the direct join model and we're starting to see this coming out of the public sector, out of those, you know, right to work states, out of, you know, the pseudo right to work states like Colorado that have excluded the public sector and seeing that actually transform private sector where we've seen some limitations that have, you 1:06:26 know, allowed big oligarchs like we've seen in the ski industry be able to squish um, you know, individual bargaining units. Um boop. Okay. Um and it opens up the ability for mountain workers like yourselves to, you know, build worker power on the mountain across resorts in a way that can be incredibly powerful. Um it can also bring in new workers into your um unit that might not otherwise that are otherwise difficult to organize in a traditional bargaining unit campaign. Uh seasonal workers, temporary contract employees, legally uncovered employees. Um, sometimes this means not focusing on collective bargaining. As I mentioned, it can be cool, but we've had some amazing transformational campaigns down in uh Colorado Springs. We had a um a campaign that scared the [ __ ] out of UC Health just running a bathroom campaign. We had um nurses in the middle of COVID pissing themselves because they were too pressured to not go to the bathroom 1:07:27 because of how bad the staffing ratios had gotten. And so we started just fighting for dignity, fighting for humanity. And now anytime we run a campaign, they're terrified of us because not only did we got grow our union density through this campaign, not only did we get nurses, doctors, surgeons, top level leadership to join our union because we are wallto- wall. We got community members to show up for us. How dare they not let you go to the bathroom? That is a human right that is protected by law. But that is how this working conditions had gotten there. And I think one of the things that shows us more than anything, especially we've seen this unprecedented attack on working people and unions, is that direct membership gives us independence. We saw Trump take this away from federal unions. We've seen with, you know, payroll deductions. It can be really convenient, but direct membership and having them sign up through a jot form through, you know, using either their debit card or their bank. I encourage you go to bank trap because we don't want to give a single 1:08:27 penny to those [ __ ] credit card companies but is is it allows you to be resistant to those and then it keeps that relationship between where it should be between workers and their union and doesn't have the painful teeth pulling activity of constantly talking to HR when that payroll deduction is inaccurate or needs to be updated and that weird relationship that exists and it allows you to build power in a way across the public sector as we've seen in Colorado as we've done with 7799. Great point. There we go. Um, as I mentioned, this can gives uh arbitrary job classifications can limit your power. Um, we've seen this particularly in higher education where they've constantly invented new job classifications. They've used contract works, retitle jobs, and move workers outside of bargaining units. Even if it hasn't happened to you yet, it will. 1:09:27 They have done this repeatedly just to eliminate positions and either promote people into a fake ass lead position or just be able to, you know, completely eliminate and use subcontract work. If the union only organizes what management or labor law allows you to define as the bargaining unit, that limits that allows a management to actually control your power as a union. Uh wall to- wall also allows you to tackle systemic problems. We've seen the use at these resorts of company towns and forcing uh workers to live and pay their employer to live near the place that they work. Um so ski patrol, constructor, lift operators, retail workers, food service, hospitality, maintenance, seasonal employees, all have different jobs, but they face the same employer in the same economic system that is [ __ ] all of us. And strong unions refuse to let the boss divide us. We've seen that so often in all of our workplaces. Faculty hating students, students hating work, faculty, 1:10:30 staff hating everyone. Well, guess what? We've got a bigger enemy to fry. We've got people who are limiting our paycheck, who are making it so that I'm working 12-hour days, and that is the same one person that is impacting faculty, the same person that is impacting student workers, that are keeping pay low, that I'm keeping working conditions unsafe. The strongest union might be the one capable of connecting workers instead of allowing the company to divide them, point the finger at each other. Oh, that's the other United M workers. Uh, that is United Mine Workers. I thought that was fun. They have the acronym is y'all. Um and then also a good example of building power across job classifications um and um taking on the richest men in the country with guns. Just a hint. Okay. Um where do I point this? I still haven't figured it out. Um okay, this does and I don't want you know this isn't like this is what y'all 1:11:30 are doing. This is just a thought. You are in charge of your union. I'm just a fan here. But this does change your organizing model fundamentally. It changes it from how do we win a union election for ski patrol here to how do we build enough worker power to crush the ski industry oligarch because that's the question because they're coming for all of us. They are definitely organizing. We can see it with project you know 2030. You know I'm sure they had a retreat. I'm sure they went out you know probably to Beck Breenidge. um to write that document, write that 800 page. They did a lot of stakeholdering into that. They came with the plan. We need to organize, too. We need to be able to match their power and hit them where they're at and be able to do that across their industry and recognize where our power is limited and what we need to do to be able to defeat their power and where we might fall short. So, some common hurdles we have seen um and how to overcome them. Um, as I 1:12:31 mentioned, you know, if you have just a faculty union or just a graduate student, great example, uh, using back there, if you only talk about graduate student worker issues, you're not going to be able to get faculty. You're not going to be able to get staff. But if you go up, if you talk about the privatization of of higher education, if you talk about the attack on DEI and trans rights, the attack the overreach of the federal system of um the you know depressionalization of higher education, you can really start to bring in larger. You've got to start punching up and find those widely and deeply felt issues that are not just based off of one um job classifications that are felt throughout the entire mountain in the entire community. Employer controlled housing, company town dynamics. Um those are the type of things that you will have to start thinking about thinking about a past not just a ski patrol union demonstrating that membership means power and not just an insurance policy. Some people think of a union as a 1:13:32 service, right? What is the what is the union doing for me? Right? You got to change that. A union is not a service. It is a opportunity to build power as as a collective. Workers are both empowered and responsible to build their own union. And you need to hold each other accountable when you don't. And so making sure that you can do that and be able to reach out and give people a reason. joint and also opportunities, new members to hold leadership position and be able to move forward. Leader identification. You want to make sure that you talk to that worker on your mountain who is the most trusted lifty, who is the most trusted food service worker and get them to understand what is at stake at this moment. Why we need to build power. what will why what what they risk by not doing this and making sure that they join their union and if you get them 1:14:33 you'll get everyone else afterwards worker and community action as Max mentioned you cannot just stay on the mountain these issues are in the local government they're in the state government they're in the federal government and I hate it I hate politicians but damn it especially as public sector workers every budget we have our paychecks our civil rights our workplace protections our human rights are debated by the people that are elected and that happens also in mountain towns as well. Getting involved with your local government, coming up with endorsements, making sure that people those folks come graveling to you for an endorsement and saying you will not make a decision without talking to us first is how you build power and how you make sure you can hold people like Bale like Alterara accountable. So, those are some hurdles. Takes a bit and then some ways to over All right, I'm going fast because I don't have a lot of time. Sorry again. Um, breaking free requires thinking big. Confined 1:15:34 sometimes means less choices. When you have a small bargaining unit, when you have just one mountain going on strike at a time, employers can easily turn a small strike or a small organizing campaign into an unfavorable choice. Either remain within uh the tightly constrained tactics or potentially escalate and risk injunctions, fines, discipline, and institutional repression at work. The re the way to get past this is escalate, escalate, escalate. And I want to point to a really great example that happened in 2018 with the West Virginia teacher strike. Um it was just started as one West Virginia school district that was contemplating going on strike during a season of massive layoffs and budget cuts. Um they talked to United Mountain Workers um over in West Virginia, the guys with the guns. Um and they were saying like, "How do we do this?" You know, they've been putting in charter schools. They've been going for privatization. how do we make sure we we do this? Um, and then particularly this was at a time where we saw a lot of 1:16:35 fines being hit on unions that went on strike illegally. U million-doll fines for unions that just absolutely financially crippled the union. Um, especially if they didn't go through the NB. And they brought up a phrase that I thought was really powerful. You got to go allin or nothing. You got to raise or you got to fold. And it they made the choice to not only go on strike but make it a statewide strike. And that fundamentally changed the political calculation for every school district in the entire state. If the strike was contained to one school district, they could be isolated and punishment. But a statewide strike created a fundamentally different political calculation because the sheer number of participants made it so hard for individual um retaliation. Not only did they win, but they won big. And they won for every single teacher in West Virginia and every single student who goes to public school. And they overwhelmed the state capital as you can see here in this picture. Um, another great example of this further back in 1:17:36 history, the 1934 Longman shore strike started off with a few hundred long shoremen going on strike on the docks. Strike breakers and scabs quickly overran them. Um, and they chose the only way that they knew how they decided to get more and more workers. They got every single dock worker that they possibly could to also go on strike. The teamsters, the truck drivers, um the delivery folks, uh the fishermen, um all went on strike. They started bringing in people from nightclubs, restaurants, uh teachers. They brought in city workers, municipal workers. They um they kept escalating and escalating and escalating. They brought in the National Guard to squash this strike and that's when um the San Francisco and the Alamita AFL CIO labor council decided to call for a general strike and led to 150,000 workers in San Francisco going on strike. They brought in the Army and 1:18:38 I'll be honest, they ended the strike 83 days in and they didn't get all their demands. But you know what they did do? Credible threat. Any time they went on strike, bosses folded immediately. And that was every single worker in the Bay Area. They got the worker the bosses were terrified from them moment. Every from that moment on, they were afraid that they were going to go on strike and bring 150,000 workers to the docks yet again. and that showed their power and their ability to escalate and their ability to build a massive coalition. So these wins sometimes take time, but the ability to escalate, the ability to bring in power, the ability to bring in more workers is something that you cannot uh u forget. There's them bringing tanks in. Cool. Imagine the ski industry power veil $2.96 billion dollar in revenue last 1:19:41 year. I did the math for the amount of Veil employees. That's $441,00017 44 4176 and 47 cents per mountain. Let that radicalize you. Um that is owned by Apollo Group Management who is owned by Leon Black. He is the guy next to Jeffrey Epstein. Um, he was known and has been written about quite a bit. I'm sure a lot of y'all know. He financed what they called Jeffrey Epste coming. He claimed for bankruptcy and Leon Black financed him to the tune of around $200 million. Um, Alteramount Resort, the revenue is not publicly available, but it is owned by KSL Capital 400 or 40 billion dollars in assets. 32.05 5 billion in just revenue for Apollo Group Management. These are what we're up against. This is what y'all are up against as United just naming it. But the truth is, Veil 1:20:44 and Altera do not run without your labor. Does not run without United Workers. Y'all have the ability to unite across resorts, to bring veil to their knees, to bring Altera to their knees, begging and willing to hand over power and raises across the board. We've seen this happen and this is not impossible. UAW with the standup strike is a great example of this. They went on strike and they did it in a very strategic way. They went on strike in surprise ways. They didn't announce where they were going on strike. A new day, a new location going on strike, new workers going on strike. They were able to do that to be able to reserve their strike fund, be able to surprise management and cause as much chaos and disruption as possible. Collectively, the top three automakers are worth 120 billion. That's more money. And they were able to win 25% raises, five $5,000 cola for every single worker immediately, and then got a $25 minimum wage to a $40 minimum uh minimum dollar 1:21:46 wage increase for for this strike. So yes, they have a lot of money, but you know what defeats money? Our labor. If we put our hands in our pocket, we've got them whipped. We got to make sure we got to build the density. We've got to make sure we build the power with inside of our workplaces. We got to make sure that they can't break us. Solidarity can work. And it has worked. Unions can win. Lastly, oh no, my little joke. Oh, well, okay. It's fine. Um, why should you listen to Jade? She doesn't even go here. Um, right. I'm a public sector worker. I work at CU Boulder. I'm dressed like an art teacher. I don't know if I'd listen to me. Um, union density has been shrinking for the past 50 years. Let's name that. We're about at 6.2%. 2% in Colorado. At the 1:22:49 height of the labor movement, we were at 30% and that was in the 30s. And it was nothing more elegant than workers with a clipboard and a list of everyone who worked in their workplace. Let's go talk to everyone there. They didn't have collective bargaining rights. They have the right to organize. They didn't have the ability to, you know, go petition the NLRB. This is what we're talking about. We cannot keep doing the same organizing strategy and expecting different results. Recognizing that we're all in this together. That's why you should listen to me because I want power too. This is not an altruistic thing. I'm not just, you know, speeding down the 70 in between here and Denver because I want to hear myself speak partially, but because the public sector, we're at risk of our jobs being lost, good union jobs. When we think about unionization, we have to think about power. And we look at it in the public 1:23:51 sector, we look at the state legislator, the governor, but we also look at the private sector. funding the fascist candidates that are looking to destabilize our entire public services. Apollo Group spends hundreds of millions of dollars to privatize higher education, defund Medicaid, cut taxes, eliminate our jobs. Apollo Group owns the University of Phoenix, the biggest private higher education institution in the world. And so, your enemy is my enemy. The boot on your neck is the same boot on my neck. We might not have a lot in common. You might not dress like an art teacher. But I want the boot off my neck and I'm guessing you do too. Unions are a really good slow strategy. We can build power as workers. It's not going to change tomorrow. We have to be strategic. We have to think about our project 2030. But the more workers willing to fight together, the faster and bigger wins we'll get and the more power in workers hands. As I mentioned, motives are not altruistic. Solidarity means recognizing 1:24:52 where there's safe vote. It's about time to start acting like it. Can you hit refresh on the slides real quick? 1:25:07 Yeah, there's Max helping me. There's solidarity. I needed to put on some lipstick. This is how I met Max. We were standing in line to go win an award for United Mountain Workers winning a badass award. 7799 winning a badass award for helping this state of labor giving people hope. And I was like, "Hey, I don't know you, but I need to put on some lipstick. Can you help me? Can you be my mirror for a second?" Didn't blink. What a man. What a man. What a mighty good man. Thank you for having me. Long live CWA. Long live United. 1:26:03 Everybody, one more time to Jade, PLEASE. Uh we we are so lucky to have gotten Jade up here and uh any any time with Jade Kelly is time well spent. So, thank you, Jade. Appreciate you. Um, we are going to move on in our programming here to uh what are we moving on to? Workshops. Sweet. Um, so we've got a lineup of workshops. There are three choices for you to take right now and we're going to do these for about an hour. Once we wrap, I'm going to just like introduce the workshops and also talk about just the logistics here. It's 11:20 right now. Um, let's plan on getting into the workshops by 11:30, running them until 12:30. And is everybody is anybody uncomfortable with an hour and a half 1:27:05 for lunch from 12:30 to 2? Speak now. All right, cool. Um, so when you get done with your workshop, don't come back in here thinking that we're going to send you off to lunch. Just go get some lunch. Um and we will meet back here at 2 PM. Um we have three workshop opportunities for you all. Um first is going to be uh an organizing discussion with our own organizer Ryan Denine. Um second is a collective bargaining discussion with myself and Gary Jordan. Uh both of those, if you'd like to attend, are going to meet out in the lobby. Um in the big room, we're going to have a workshop forming and operating a mobilization committee. We've got the Breen Ridge President, Bobby D. Marini, and Ethan Smith, the Park City Ski Patrol Secretary, who are going to run that 1:28:05 workshop for you guys. And like that's not the simplest lingo. Essentially, a mobilization committee is a structure that's made of members to translate information from executive boards and bargaining committees directly to the membership to solicit direct feedback on a one-on-one basis. If you want to talk about how a 70 person unit at Telleluride, a 200 person unit at Park City can have one-on-one conversations with every single member to gauge whether or not they are ready to go on strike to gauge whether or not they're ready to show up to their general meeting all wearing the same t-shirt. Whatever it is, it all happened through the mobilization committee. And this is the nuts and bolts of how we pull these actions off. And so I'd encourage you guys to consider attending um Bobby and Ethan's uh workshop. All of these are going to be discussionbased. So don't like expect a lecture. Come in willing to participate, ask questions, and have an open mind. Uh any questions before we do 1:29:08 that? >> Larry, do you want more of us? >> We We've got our two people and I want you guys to do what you want to do. Yep. >> Um the organizing and collective bargaining discussions will meet out in the lobby and we'll figure out where we're going from there. Uh mobilization committee discussion will just be right here. >> Yeah, Adam. 1:30:06 Nice. >> Sick. >> Um, yeah. We And I'd say like if anybody brought swag, break it out. Thank you guys for doing that. Um, so that was definitely something I meant to plug and forgot. Ready? Break. >> All right, cool. 1:33:16 Um yeah, just to introduce myself and then I'll let Brian and Ethan introduce themselves. I'm Bobby D. Marinas going into my eighth year patrolling um at Breck um and yeah, I stepped into the president's role um this past fall. Um, prior to that, uh, when we were negotiating our last contract, um, I was head of our immobilization committee, and that's what we're going to talk about here today is the nuts and bolts of what a mobilization committee does, some of our lessons learned from Breck and Park City, uh, what worked, what didn't work. Um, and really curious, you know, where you all are from bargaining unit wise, where you're at with mobilization committees, and what questions you have. So, we kind of envision this as like a little uh open forum and Q&A. Um, I'll let them introduce themselves and then it'd be great if folks um wanted to at least introduce your unit. If you've got a bunch of people here from the same unit, love to hear where you're at in terms of, you know, having a mobilization 1:34:17 committee, what you utilized it for. Um, and yeah, let you guys introduce yourselves. I'm Smith from PCP just roanked 1:34:40 member perspective successful mobilization. 1:35:47 Yeah, we'll we'll open the floor to you all before we get into the narrative story with our mobilization. But yeah, someone from each unit wants to mobiliz 1:36:49 Um, >> microphones be good. Help me. Yeah, mobilization is something we struggle with as a unit simply because we are spread out through like four counties. We don't have any kind of like central hub of people living in and in a a tight-knit area. So, we really have a hard time with this type of stuff. So, looking for some um advice for kind of more virtual or or distanced mobilization efforts. Sweet. Yeah. Um I'm Luke from Park City Lift Maintenance. Um I'm the vice president, one of the two vice presidents there. Um kind of a similar situation. We are bargaining in 2028. Uh so um yeah, I figured I'd try to get some ideas rolling and um similar where we have half our unit is split between living in Salt Lake City and Heber and so we're you know 40 50ish miles away 1:37:51 from each other. So um yeah, definitely excited to get some ideas rolling. Uh, my name is Blake Dawan. I'm from Big Sky Ski Patrol. Um, we got a few of us here. We've never done any mobilization committee and I think we're all really interested in it. Um, definitely in ways to like flex those muscles and maybe more accessible accessible ways to do it. Maybe um like something that's short of a strike obviously and something that's just a good way to practice and uh make those committees. But yeah, no, we haven't we haven't done it yet. And I think similar to a lot of patrols, we're we're like separated through three different towns that are very far apart, too. And sometimes we're like, "Oh, that's a unique issue we have." So, we can't do these things. But it's not unique at all. And a lot of us have that. So, excited to hear y'all's thoughts. 1:38:53 >> I'm Jason. We're from Steamboat. Um, as far as I know, we don't really have a mobilization unit. We have a very good bargaining unit and a fundraising unit. And I guess Steamboat's kind of unique that we all are kind of live in Steamboat. So, we're all neighbors and we work together and live together. So, yeah, I'd like to hear some thoughts about how we can improve as well. >> Well, I'm Jack from A Bas. uh was just on our bargaining committee as we got our first contract. Um we definitely struggled with engagement and I know we tried to stand up some sort of mobilizing committee going into like towards the end of our bargaining. Um, we had a lot of difficulty driving engagement, getting anyone else to uh have ownership over that process and like stepping up to try to get people to show up for us or do any sort of event leading up to us trying to get our 1:39:53 contract. So, I'd love to hear some more from you guys and from anyone who's got ideas on that. >> Hey, I'm uh Evan. I'm the new vice president at Aldora. Um we do not have a moization committee. Um but we're interested. I think the issue that we're facing is in 2023 when uh Eldora unionized there's overwhelming support from the team, the community and since then we've had a lot of turnover and it's kind of fizzled out. So we'd like to up engagement. I'm Jamie from Whitefish and uh yeah, we similarly don't really have a well- definfined mobilizing committee right now and you know in some ways we're a small group of like 27 or something. So there's definitely days where we all live pretty close by and doesn't seem super necessary. Our biggest struggle is usually in the off season when folks are 1:40:53 away. We've got a lot of folks who work things like, you know, overnight raft trips and they'll be, you know, away for a month at a time and without service for long periods. And so trying to maintain some sort of, you know, connectivity there throughout our off season is probably our hardest thing that, you know, with everybody living close together and then working in the same space throughout the winter with only, you know, less than 30 folks, it's not very difficult to communicate things during that portion of the season. struggle for sure in our offseason. >> I'm Reed. I'm from Crest. Uh was elected president back in February. Um it's my first time attending this meeting. So it's great to see all of you, especially those of you I've seen over Zoom. Um we are, if you guys didn't know, we're probably one of the oldest units in the the UMW. Um, and what we're dealing with right now is kind of like the apathy, 1:41:56 just kind of like stagnating energy. I think there's people that are like they're starting to feel that the fire and drive is like pressure from their outside lives or maybe like um some of those outside effects are now starting to affect their little insular world that they've created for themselves in the outdoor wreck industry. and uh they're starting to realize that um maybe more collective engagement is necessary, but I think we have a lot of people that are living in their bubble in our in our unit and um I'm trying to find a way to drive engagement with those people that have kind of fallen into that like what has my union done for me lately. Um you know, and really wanting them to stand up for themselves and for their communities. Um I know I just kind of want to gloss over this real quick before we get into this. We were talking about community engagement, contacting like as a as a representative of your unit, contacting every single one of your local, state, county, like US 1:42:58 representatives. It doesn't matter if it's a form letter. Make them explain to you why your rights don't matter as a worker. Make them explain to you why you don't matter. That's important. And that's a good way to vet those people and and let them know that there's 50, 60, 200 people that are watching what they say and see how they change their tone a little bit. That's >> Yeah. Sweet. Thank you all for for sharing. Appreciate, you know, where you're all coming from in terms of context and um it's it's amazing to get, you know, this this group together um and our bargaining units um across the you know, some as small as eight, a Park City pushing like 200, right? Um, so every bargaining unit is is unique in its its makeup and we have a lot of the same um challenges but also different challenges and trying to mobilize our bargaining unit. Um, and there is no 1:43:58 playbook for us in order to do it. That's kind of selfishly one of the takeaways we want from this workshop is at some point in the future um have a group from the diverse units of the UMW um start collaborating on a mobilization manual um you know compiling all of our shared experiences, what works, what doesn't work. Um that could be a guideline um for us as we continue to engage with our our unit and um bargain for for fair contracts. Um so we'll start by just kind of going through the narratives of our experience um in in heading up mobilization committees. Um we'll start with Brian. Um he was on our most recent bargaining session. So uh um team so he's got a a good perspective. Um and then I'll go into kind of the rank and file of communicating information and mobilizing. Then Ethan will share from from Park City his experience. 1:44:58 Do you want to use a mic for the live stream or stand up here? >> And it sounds like we have some people with mobilization committees that aren't working could be more effective. Some people haven't started their mobilization committee. What I'd say is no matter where you are, do it now. Um, so if you're not in negotiations, it's a great way to look at the manual, look at the best practices of standing one up and then test it. uh low low stakes, just get information out there. Um and then if you're in negotiations, it's the single biggest thing that we did that actually helped us at the table. Um in add um but just in terms of context, so this is now um our experience um how we set it up and then we'll get into um what went well, what didn't go well. Uh so this is 2025. Um, we started our negotiations with Vale in April and uh had our first meeting um intent to try to knock this 1:46:01 out in 30 to 60 days and then we didn't hear from them for four months. Um and so really nothing. Um and then over the course of the next four months, things really intensified um intensified to the point of either um um near walkouts um to accusations um to um just manipul manipulating tactics. Um and so clearly things were heating up and um we realized we had three gaps. Gap number one was how do we share information to the membership about what the hell is going on and like all you said in the summer nobody's really engaged. Um and we felt like we were on an island. Um so we needed to get the word out for education and awareness but even more importantly we needed information coming back in. Um we didn't know how hot our membership 1:47:02 was. We didn't know what they were willing to do. We didn't know if they're willing to strike. we didn't know if the types of things we were going after were the things that they wanted. So, literally that was the biggest gap. The second huge gap that we had um was really sharing with the public and veil um the tenor of our membership. So, I'm talking social media, I'm talking things that you can do um that makes headlines whether it's in the newspaper. So we we weren't able to get the word out to then empower us at the negotiating table. Um and that's why we turned to mobilization committees and other things. And so Bobby will talk about how we set ours up. >> Um yeah, the terminology uh can get a little confusing. Um for our purposes um we had a a large mobilization team that was broken down um into smaller 1:48:02 branches. Um so we had a pretty broad definition of what it was to to mobilize um building internal solidarity um creating external pressure and all of these different teams kind of fed into that that ultimate goal. um just to I'll breeze through them quickly and then we're going to focus mostly on kind of the union demonstrations and the resources that supported that. Um but we established teams with an accountable lead, key metrics for each each team, um community activation, um union enrollment and engagement, union fundraising, union internal communications, union uh sentiment and pulse checks, union social media, and union demonstrations. Um, so we went through and and reached out to people who'd be interested in leading these different kind of subcommittees of the mobilization team. Um, you've probably figured this out in your union unionization efforts, but patrollers are 1:49:02 pretty dog [ __ ] at reading their email. Um, so the best way to get buy in is phone calls and conversations in in person. um rather than an email saying, "Hey, does anyone want to participate in this team or head up this team um you may have one or two people who respond to that email." Uh but when you call someone, when you come up with your list of of people who would be good in these roles and you call them, um you're going to get better buy in. So make those direct asks, "Um you think would be best in in some of these roles." Um, so one of our subcommittees, the one that I led up was union demonstrations. Um, and so essentially leading efforts to organize any demonstration. Um, so I think kind of the overarching goal of ours was to hear from the bargaining committee what was going on, um, and have this escalation plan. Um, you know, if we weren't meeting um, these demands in our 1:50:03 contract, we had this escalation plan with C. key dates with, you know, when we didn't have our contract, we were going to step up action. Um, in order to create an escalation plan, um, you need buyin and sentiment from the union and from your bargaining unit, you need to know where people stand. Um all of this, you know, tracking sentiment of of the unit, um to making direct asks for people to participate in a a demonstration um requires good communication tools. Um and so the the first thing I did um as negotiations were heating up and we were heading back to work at orientation um was create a phone tree. Um, and if you've never heard of a phone tree, it's it's exactly what it sounds like. Um, it's a way to quickly communicate to a large number of people um, utilizing phone tree leads. Um, so what mine eventually ended up 1:51:03 looking like, and I'm happy to share this these resources, they may or may not work for your bargaining unit size, but it can give you kind of a bare bones overview of how we did it. Um, I created an Excel document um, with our entire membership and about are they a union member? They on the bargaining committee, how many years have they been on patrol? And then of that membership list identified um about 20 phone tree leads. Um so called them and saw if they were interested in in operating as a phone tree lead. and the phone tree lead. Uh when um we were trying to disseminate information about a demonstration, me and and my co-lead uh would call everyone on the phone tree lead, send them documents, answer questions, and then they would turn uh to their phone tree list, which we kept to about eight people per individual. Um otherwise, you know, it's it quickly becomes unsustainable if you're trying to call 10, 15, 20 people. Um and then 1:52:05 we had a way for people to track information about the conversations um for at our particular story. Um the first day of uh our back to season orientation um as a show of solidarity to our bargaining unit um as a show of solidarity to those who had been spending you know months bargaining at the table with veil. Um we reached out to our unit to see if folks were um interested in having a visual display of solidarity by wearing red um to orientation um on the first day. Um so that was the first ask and and a big portion of this demonstration as well was to test our phone tree um and to test this resource um before further escalating to to bigger actions. Um so we went ahead called all the phone tree leads had really good conversations. They in turn um called their whole list and we communicated that we were doing this to um all members um and 1:53:05 non-members. Um we use this as an opportunity to talk to non-members um who are eligible to be in our union um but have not joined the unit yet to have a conversation with them uh and and keep them engaged and let them know, hey, this is going on. Um, we're bargaining for our contract, which you're going to be working under, even if you're not a voting member of our our unit. Um, and we're going to continue escalating our actions in support of a fair contract. Um, so would you like us to keep you in the loop? Demonstration was was really successful. Um, and a bunch of speakers from outside of patrol at our orientation commented on it like, I didn't know we were supposed to wear red here. Which is kind of funny to see some of the managers squirm at that. Um and then um it escalated as as the negotiation of our contract was um just getting stonewalled um where we had a planned picket the day for our um contract expiration. Um and the 1:54:09 activation of the phone tree we did for a a party um where we made a lot of signs um and then we activated the phone tree for the picket um itself. Again, all this data whether attending is being put into an Excel spreadsheet um for that last action the plan pick it. We also created another sheet uh Google or a Excel sheet that um was like a picket scheduler and I'm sure Park City um you know you all had a lot more experience with us. Um we scheduled one day of a picket which we ended up cancelling um and I think in part because of how successful our phone tree and escalation efforts were. Um, we cancelled the picket. Um, we went to town council, um, and let them know that we were planning this picket. Received kind of overwhelming support from the community. Um, had a a sign building party at a local ski shop. Shout out to Greenlight Sam Simons. And I think he took a video 1:55:09 and like posted it to Instagram while the negotiations were happening. And I think that video and the news article about us going to town council um got into the room on the veil side. Um and Brian can speak to this, but they were adamant about having a a marathon session that night to get a contract so that we would cancel that pickup. Um yeah, that's kind of the narrative from my perspective. If folks that want to chime in, 1:55:52 start. 1:56:05 Mhm. 1:56:30 No problem. 1:56:54 Yeah. Yeah. And I I think that's really powerful, you know, about the United Workers is, you know, that momentum builds and and we certainly built on that momentum. Everything we built in terms of our resources, um, pretty much stemmed from a really long conversation with Kate Lips over at Park City. um and the momentum that they built going on strike and you know the um escalation that they saw from Breenidge and and Park City in the back of their minds had a a massive effect on on how successful we were. 1:57:49 Um, yeah. Why don't Ethan Ethan, why don't you share your story and then we'll jump into like some some lessons learned and just open it up to a Q&A. >> Yeah, sounds great. And I've been known to ramble, which I'm going to try not to do because I think there's more value in talking about your individual situations here rather than me just talking at folks for a while. A little bit of context. Uh I jumped into patrolling at Park City in the middle of a big negotiation. I think that lasted 19 months in total. Um and I can tell you that we did not have a mobilization committee at that time. And like having now experienced negotiations with and without like a mobilization committee is a really really powerful tool and I witnessed like a lot of confusion and disorganization from other rookies including myself and like even advanced patrollers uh just throughout that whole first process that was really curbed 1:58:50 really really well by having a mobilization committee. So, uh, we started negotiations spring of 24. Um, and similar to what Brian was talking about, had six negotiators in the room, just kind of stuck with, uh, how things were going with Veil and very much so like kind of in their heads and not hearing from uh, the body of patrollers. Um and so kind of going into the fall after, you know, five, six months of pretty uh slow progress in terms of negotiations, our executive board put together a really really awesome uh plan of escalation leading into what was that strike for a couple weeks that winter. And so a huge part of that um was them choosing to create this mobilization committee. Um 1:59:54 and that took a lot of planning and a lot of um like foresight from their part. that what it looked like in practice from our executive board was them realizing that the eight of them plus the six negotiators can't talk to 180 190 people effectively, right? That's what our unit is in terms of size. And so, um, super similar to when you're organizing to create a unit and organizing to, uh, yeah, start start a union. Um, like very much so took that concept of social mapping and like, you know, talking to people being a lot more effective than trying to get people to understand really anything via an email. like that's not that's not a good way to communicate, right, to to folks who work outside every day. So, uh what it looked like for us was really our our executive board just putting out in an email like 2:00:55 a call to to action for folks who wanted to be involved to step into this mobilization committee. Um it wasn't like them approaching people on a one by one basis. It was like anybody who is willing to help like we need help come join us. And so started as about 10 people um right at the beginning of the season there eventually throughout the season grew into like 30 to 35 people who were uh on this mobilization committee and communicating with folks. And so, similar to Breck, like you know, I don't want to talk a ton about our collective actions, but we started with everybody wearing the same shirt to our general meeting being the like first thing that we do at the start of the season and then escalated into a practice picket. and a practice picket right in front of where negotiations were actively happening and then a strike authorization and then eventually 2:01:58 deciding to go on strike. And really like this mobilization committee and the phone tree that that uh Bobby was alluding to uh was paramount in making those things happen, right? uh having a one- on-one conversation with literally every member of the unit to to ask like, "Hey, where are you at? How do you feel about this?" You know, and then have that really hard ask of, "Can I count on you to do this? Will you show up for the rest of the membership and wear a shirt and show up to this pra practice picket? Will you vote yes on a strike authorization? Super super powerful way to get rank and file members involved. Also a really really powerful way to get people who aren't in elective elected positions 2:02:59 within our unit involved in a way that feels really really meaningful. A little bit different than it sounds like for Breck. Um we were just frankly so big that our mobilization committee was a little bit more of a revolving door. Um really what in practice it looked like for us was having a weekly meeting with a few of our executive board who, you know, was was pretty run ragged just making plans and going to negotiations and dealing with, you know, media and all of these other things. We'd get a few of them together to to meet with everybody. And it was really just whoever showed up to that mobilization committee meeting that week. And we would go through talk about how the previous phone calls we had had gone with folks, talk about concerns uh and feedback that we'd gotten and then plan our next collective 2:04:02 action. Um which like I said like our executive board did a really awesome job of having this really great vision for escalation. And so they would bring things to the table to us and like that was a really good opportunity for them to kind of get out of that like little echo chamber of just the eight of them planning and chatting um and kind of get some more eyes on on things. And then from there, literally every single meeting that we had, we would go through our entire 180 190 person phone tree and make sure that somebody was assigned who was there in that call to then make a one-on-one phone call to every individual person so that we could make sure everyone was being talked to, nobody was feeling excluded, whether they were active in the unit or whether they were a non-designing member, like everybody was 2:05:02 getting a phone call and getting chatted with, being heard out, and then getting that ask of this is what we need from you. Um, that's that's like really the the nuts and bolts of what it looked like. Like I said, I was a rank and file member in that mobilization committee at the time. Um, I think that like really from my perspective like it was super incredibly successful. Um, I think the the big challenge that like kind of we've hit on a lot and heard from all of you a little bit is just like keeping groups like that engaged when it's not wartime, you know, um, is a big challenge for sure. But um like we've found some really awesome ways to like reactivate those people and introduce new members into that committee when we've had things like um RTO come up which some folks here um are aware of uh like veil not 2:06:06 honoring their language uh in our contract about stuff like that. But um yeah, I guess if if folks have any any questions about what that looked like from uh the Park City perspective um or questions for for Bobby or Brian here. I think we should open it up to that and then kind of break out into some smaller groups and discuss your units and what this looks like moving forward for you all. Great. Sounds perfect. >> Let me get you a mic. >> This will be quick. This is my sixth list of advice. No matter where you are in the process, uh number one is mobilization is just um doing something. But what is the thing that you want to do? Uh think about that now. Um we call it I think it was like an actions library. um which is like again the basic stuff is wearing shirts or buttons 2:07:07 or petitions or social media campaigns. Say no to May work, walk out on um liftac, walk out on orientation. If you have that list, you kind of think through the logistics associated with that and then when it's time to mobilize, you should think of the call tree as just the button that says let's go do that thing. Um so I think that would be helpful because there's a lot of logistics that go into this thing. Um, feel free to not call it a committee. People have an aversion to calling things committees. So, we call work groups or what a team, whatever. It doesn't matter. Um, I've already said get it set up now and test it. Um, increasing your ask of the phone tree over time. So, Bobby mentioned there's a lot of tests that you can do whether it's wearing a shirt, escalating. Um, make communications tight from the table to the script to the message to the action. And so what that means is negotiating table um understanding what kind of script you're writing for that caller to use when they're calling 2:08:07 somebody. And so it's a consistent message across the callers and you're actually making it very easy to make a twominut call. And again that is usually one ask per call. Um and then connect and Bobby said this connect your mobilization with social media public awareness. get that buzz and figure out who at the table that you're actually negotiating with might actually see it and figure out that avenue. But those are my quick advice to you and I don't know if you guys have 2:08:58 So I suppose this is kind of off of a little bit of the advice, but do you think there So these examples were brought up when there's negotiation going on and you need to call an a call to action and whatnot. Do you think for those of us who don't quite have this mobilization committee in place, if there's some strategy behind when we create it, for instance, if it we're not up for negotiation for a number of years and you create the committee, do you think it might be random or do you think it would lose steam or people would lose engagement by the time negotiation comes around? Or do you think it'd be wise to, you know, like a year or six months before negotiation, create this committee, kind of send a message and be like, "Hey, we're prepared to do what we need to if [ __ ] hits the fan." Um, or what basically what I'm asking is like, is there are there specific reasons to have this in place before negotiation? Because I could see that being hard to motivate people if it's like peaceful and there's nothing going on um, you know, negotiations or whatnot. If that makes sense. >> Um, yeah, I can speak to that quick. And 2:09:59 yeah, I think Brian um earlier said the the best time to do it is is right now. Um and I think the earlier you do it, even if you know you're several years out from from bargaining um the better because you're building these resources, getting experiences with them, testing them, and that way the next time you need to rebuild them, there's experience with doing it. Um, for example, like th this season, you know, we we just signed a a three-year contract, so we're in a peace time right now. Um, but we want to keep familiar with this process of escalation and communication. Um, and you know, our phone tree, it's changed a lot. We we lost a lot of people. We lost like half of our phone tree leads who had experience in doing it last year. Um, so yeah, my hope is over the next month to kind of rebuild the the phone tree um and test it in in the fall. Um, and it doesn't need to be, you know, a huge demonstration building up to um an 2:11:02 action because you're negotiating to have it be worthwhile. Um, you know, this fall, you know, for our first uh unit meeting um in November, we're going to activate our phone tree and see if we can get as many people there as possible. vote on some proposed bylaw changes. Um, and that there's a lot of value in that. Again, like testing your systems, so when it's game time in a couple of years, you know, we've got more people with more experience uh with the phone tree resource. Um, but also engagement and and building solidarity. um you know, everyone scatters for the summertime and and using the fall even in a year where you're not negotiating uh to bring people back together, start engaging um with conversation and and hearing from the membership just makes things, you know, more democratic, more inclusive and build solidarity in the long run. So yeah, I would say that build it tomorrow, you know. >> Yeah. I and I would also just say being 2:12:02 really intentional about what you're doing with this group of people is important and that will help curb burnout and and people just wondering what what you're doing. You know, being transparent and being really intentional. Like you could use these people in peace time to like start gathering a contract wish list. Like that's a really good peace time way to have a one-on-one conversation with everybody in your unit to ask what what people are thinking about, what people want, using them to to just check on how contract enforcement is going throughout a season. Like things like that are really good ways to activate these people. But just be intentional about what you're doing and what your goals are and what you want these people to do. Yeah, I just kind of wanted to highlight the engagement aspect of it. Um, last year was our third contract. I'm sorry, 2:13:04 I should introduce myself. Breen Ridge Ski Patroller, uh, going into my ninth season. Uh, but yeah, last year was our third contract and the first and second contracts and bargain committees did not have a mobilization committee at all. and I was on the second bargaining committee and we kind of just hit a brick wall in negotiations more or less as far as like the leverage that we saw that we had and a lot of what we were doing at the table was bluffing and making it seem like we had more leverage than we actually did. Um, and then I was a phone tree lead for the last committee thanks to the work that Brian and Bobby did and then all the work that you guys did at Park City to set up the framework for that. And the difference was night and day as far as what we're able to ask for. Just the level of attendance at the meetings was significantly higher because that phone tree was involving people calling and asking whether or not they were going to show up rather than just sending out an email saying, "Hey, we're all getting together." Um, so again, just trying to emphasize how 2:14:06 critical it was and back to the timing of it, like doing it sooner than later because we realized how much work it would be when we're in that second bargain committee and we're like, we're just not ready and it's not actually feasible to do this in a timely fashion to get people engaged. Um, so yeah, just highlighting the importance of it. I think it changed everything. And if you look at our contracts, first contract we just needed to push through was modest gains. second contract was better, but the contract that we ratified with the help of um a mobilization committee was by far the largest gains that we had seen and I think there's a definite definite parallel there. >> Yeah. >> Could you guys just speak to some of the challenges or speed bumps you came across when you started these mobilization units? started our unit like everything is just like trying to get people to step up and um and follow 2:15:09 through. And so I think the biggest thing is you don't need no matter how big your unit is, you just need a couple reliable people. Um and so um give them the love, give them like, hey, let's go do this. I think we maybe started too ambitious by trying to have 12 leads and social media and fundraising and it was just like that's why we were so thankful Bobby stepped up into that role and followed through on that role. Um and then allowed them to kind of grow the engagement from there. Um but you're going to be pretty um I don't want to say disappointed but um um it's tough asking for people to do things. Um, and so find two or three people you can rely on and start there. And then maybe next time it's four and five, but don't get discouraged because you don't have 12 people of 150 person. Um, and I think that was um the biggest 2:16:11 challenge for me. I I can't speak on behalf of >> Yeah. And I think just starting somewhere like what Brian is saying like when we started ours even from like frankly our unit we have a really really good engagement and buyin like people are very in to the union and it's a really cool thing about our unit and something that we really appreciate about our unit. Um but even then like having 10 people out of 180 people show up that's like still a lot of workload right. Um and so starting somewhere and then we spent a lot of time identifying people who were like that person would be good at this and has a lot of social clout and uh like we need to bring them in and so who within the 10 people who had showed up like who can talk to that person and bring them into this and that's how we grew our committee from 10 people to 30 35 people and so starting somewhere and and just growing and 2:17:12 getting after it. >> Um, and I'd add to that, like have have conversations often um as you're escalating, as you're organizing, as you're mobilizing about the sustainability of it. Um, burnout is real from, you know, anyone who is is in a bargaining session can attest to for any executives or people who have helped with committees um with with your unions um you know, on top of our full-time patrol jobs and second and third jobs. Um, you know, volunteering a lot of hours burns burns people out really quickly. So, continue to have those conversations with yourself and and with your peers. Um, what's going to make this sustainable? When do you have to take a step back um and ask for help from other people? One more thing I'd just like to question the whole room here about like social media and posting in uniform everything like that. At Steamboat we really face a 2:18:13 challenge where the management does not want us posting anything in our uniform. I feel like we're missing a lot of engagement with the community from that. So I was just wondering what everybody else their thoughts are about that. 2:19:06 Definitely bargain. for it in your next round. Like we bargained for that for ourselves. It's in our contract that >> Yeah. 2:19:28 There's two different 2:19:45 Obvious. 2:20:08 Yeah. On the other side. 2:20:38 We weren't really interested in agreeing to, but it' been a really long process to try and get a shitty first contract. Anyhow, so we had reluctantly agreed to language that says that we can't be engaged in any anti-UN like communications of any form. Um, which is a or anti- mountain. Yeah, I'm sorry I said that backwards. Yeah, we wouldn't do that, right? Oh, yeah. They would love that [ __ ] >> Yeah, perfect. Go for it. Um, so yeah. Um, we're in our negotiations right now. um which that item is still in the works, but trying to figure some of that out. It's it's pretty vague what's anti- mountain or anti- company. And so like we haven't seen anything too terrible from the company in response to some posts that we've had. and it's been pretty like civil on a couple of things 2:21:40 that they were not happy that somebody posted, but um things in uniform they're not opposed to. It seems that um you know for our contract it's quite open and vague in that way that it's one of those things we're trying to get out of there for for our no strike no lockout clause for a little context here. Like the big item for us was that they wanted us to agree that we waved grievance and arbitration right for the whole article. They said they could not operate their company without it kind of thing. I was like that's [ __ ] ridiculous. Um so we we just got them to agree to that and now we're going to be working into this other thing. But um yeah, trying to have that kind of language void of the contract is obviously the goal. you know, when you're out of contract, you can kind of do whatever the hell you want. But, you know, within the contract period duration there, you'd think that, you know, reasonable posts and things of that nature would be pretty acceptable. 2:22:41 But the language in ours right now is super vague. 2:22:53 Um, yeah, we're kind of coming up on our hour, so I don't want to keep folks from from lunch. Um, yeah, appreciate all the conversation and the um experiences from other other units. Um, my my call to action would be yeah, like like we said, you know, start your mobilization committee um and test it early. Um, and you know, you don't have to start from scratch. You know, we can continue these conversations um pass contact information and happy to talk to folks on the phone anytime. Um, and if anyone's interested, um, I'll keep my computer open here if folks want to see what our phone tree looked like. I got Park Cities as well. Um, and our mobilization manual that we've started to build that my kind of pie in the sky vision for is, you know, a few years from now after we've gotten lots of people to collaborate on a manual for, you know, how to do this based on a lot of people's experience, you know, and we have a new bargaining for the first time 2:23:55 and building these mobilization committees. We have this compilation of of resources from a ton of experience with the United Workers. But I encourage you, yeah, even if um you're not interested in taking a look at Excel spreadsheets because it's boring, um if you want to come up and just write your email down if you want those resources sent to you, I'm happy to share anything and everything. >> Cool. Yeah. Thanks everyone. 2:24:30 Yeah, I just pulled up. 2:25:23 Thanks, Larry. 2:25:47 Um, I'm gonna 2:25:56 What do we need to say? 2:26:21 No, it's okay. 2:26:29 Those 2:26:54 details are all 2:27:11 You ready? >> Hey guys, >> right at the perfectly timely as always. Um, yeah, appreciate you all getting back here. Hopefully you guys had a nice lunch. Um, we're gonna jump right into speakers again and run through these into our last round of workshops. Uh, any questions, clarifications, anything like that before we roll into it? Cool. Um, our next speaker is Ryan Denine. And uh a man that needs no introduction will get a small introduction from me. It's I mean Ryan's been working for this union for what four or five years? Five years now. >> Yeah. 2:28:16 >> Ryan's been working working Um, I mean, realistically, like we we see the product that Ryan delivers um when he's in person, when he's on meetings with us, and I think that we should also recognize the the product that he has helped to deliver for this union. Um, you know, workers organize themselves and and that's not to diss on an organizer, but you know, a foundation of organizing is that these ideas that we're going to unite around have to come from within and and be agreed upon by the workers, not by the organizer, right? Not dictated by the organizer. and Ryan's ability to work with groups and work with their interests and add his own perspective at times that are just exactly perfect is something that I 2:29:19 look up to a lot and um a lot of us I think have a lot to learn about about organizing and we are just like really fortunate to have in my opinion one of the best in the business uh to to teach us and so without further ado. Ryan Dina, everybody. >> Oh boy, it's a tough group. Um, I'm a lot better on Zoom. Um I spent a lot of my time um kind of looking out from this group to help organize new people to kind of help people um you know just organize their their their workplaces and and um I have some words to say kind of like looking back into this group and I think there's some things that I want to talk about. Um I mean part of my job is external organizing the other part is supposedly internal organizing and I don't know that I really do a whole lot of that. Um, I'd like to do more. Um, but the 2:30:22 notes I prepared kind of kind of have me reflecting back on our group a little bit and maybe from my own kind of philosophical perspective and and maybe more as a member than than an organizer in a way. So, I thought a lot about what I would want to say to this group given the chance and and and this is kind of where I ended up. So, hang on. Uh, organizing is asking fundamentally, but asking is never just a request. It's more of a structure test. In organizing, structural tests are used to kind of assess where a group is and nudge them along like just one step forward. So today I want to present an ask to this union which is to say a structural test. The ask is is that I believe as an organizer and a proud member of this union, we need to further democratize this space. Whatever motivated the original formation of your unit or your activation, whether it be pay or safety, 2:31:22 a distant manager or shitty uniform, fundamentally, we are all challenging and calling into question the legitimacy of hierarchies in our lives. No one here voted for their boss or is consulted about the future of their workplace. Hell, even to say that out loud kind of sounds silly. I mean, of course you weren't. That's not how things work. But in the words of my kids, why why in a country and in a culture that so loudly exalts freedom and democracy do we so easily and naturally surrender both when we clock in. Our unions are our first step in confronting and challenging that contradiction. And once we get we be once we begin to disassemble and diffuse these power structures, the tendency is to keep going. In that spirit, I ask that we all remain 2:32:25 critical and vigilant in regards to the structures of power and hierarchy we allow into our union. And we demand that all such structures in our lives be constantly tested for legitimacy. So in this space, which is our space, we should seek out and cultivate liberatory practices that honor the individuality of each member while also building trust, solidarity, and community that will carry us forward in this fight. We should be wary of any tendency to replace one distant, unaccountable power structure with a similar parallel seat of authority. We as members need to help steer this union to better reflect the world we want to live in. In the historical tradition of liberator liberatory socialism, otherwise known as anarchism, this idea is called prefigurative politics. Prefigurative politics is when we as 2:33:26 unionists embody our desired future of society in our present day organizations, our relationships, and our everyday practices. In other words, we build a new world within the shell of the old. Notable historical examples of which can be found amongst the Zapatistas in southern Mexico in Rojava in the northeast Syria and the global occupy movement of the early 2010s. None of this should be seen as a critique of Max or any executive committee or president. I have no specific prescriptions that we should implement as gospel. What this may look like though is to move beyond representative or even direct direct democracy to methods that build mutual understanding instead of winners and losers. Educating each member to fully exercise their voice while also reminding them that deep listening often accomplishes more than rigid entrenched opinions. Structurally, it could mean just taking 2:34:28 more decisions to the membership, even if that decision takes longer. And if we feel the need to implement collections of power, whether that be in the individual or in bylaws, we remain cognizant of when that centralized power is no longer useful and should return it from where it came. This requires a committed and engaged membership and that's where the real work lies outside of proclamations and mission statements. Our union is not and should never be static and should go undergo continual rebirth, refinement, and the occasional revolution. I hope these remarks, as short as they've been, again, aren't seen as a critique or a prescription, but as a catalyst for conversation and exploration, and I look forward to both with each of you. Thanks, guys. 2:35:41 It was you, right? 2:35:48 >> Hold on. Sorry. If you don't say it into the mic, it didn't happen. That's the rules. >> I read uh an author asked two questions, and I'd like you to answer them in the context of what you just said. A million people believe this to be so. My experience tells me it's wrong. Oh, really? A million people think this is wrong, and I'm sure that it's right. Oh, really? What you have suggested sounds really great. We use our collective understanding of our situations to mold and guide our union. But what makes 1100 of us right when you when you've researched the whatever very carefully and understand that A, B, C, and D are facing us. I don't want to automatically 2:36:51 toss out your efforts and say,00 of us can vote say no don't do that or do do that. If you understood my point, please speak to it. >> Those two research. >> I don't know if I have an answer directly to that, but I think it it it makes me think of a particular tyranny that can be democratic, right? You can vote in a tyrannical situation. Exactly. Um, and I think that's fundamentally part of the critique here is that there is freedom beyond democracy. One one person, one vote gets us somewhere, but I don't think it gets us to exactly where we can go. And I think 2:37:55 relying on argument and counterargument and persuasiveness and and entrenchment can only get us so far. And at least there's a common experience amongst us to build a community of a vulnerability to each other so that we can honestly hear each other. I I've tried in my organizing to take on the uh idea of deep listening. What does that mean? Like to to really listen to somebody, not just wait for your turn to speak. and to really try to understand where they are. They're they're in organizing, we we go through the the one, twos, and threes, right? The ones are easy. The twos are hard. Threes are are someone you're never going to convince. And and it's easy to dismiss the threes or the reds or whatever you want to call them in the organizing campaign. But truthfully, like our our entire success 2:38:56 relies on that person. They don't have to be a member, but we need their voice. need to understand their critique and where it comes from. Not to dismiss it, but just to continue to understand it, dig deeper. So, I I don't I don't know if that answered your question, but at least made me think of something. >> Thank you. Appreciate that. Didn't know it was Q&A, but anybody else? >> Thanks, 2:39:34 Thanks, Ryan. Um, that was awesome. Thanks for the question, Lowry. Um, as you guys know, we're live streaming. That's the reason we're going to pass this around, not to save people's voice boxes. Um, up next we've got Blake. Um Blake's a Blake's a big sky patroller and and Blake has been our treasurer for the last year and honestly thank goodness for that. Um the the work that we've been able to do has been great. And what has been most important to me is the cander and and honesty and humility that Blake approaches this position with. I think that when when Blake speaks from his position, he 2:40:37 wears and recognizes the weight of representing so many people from so many different backgrounds that many of which, you know, the m the vast majority of which we've never met. and and trying to put ourselves into the shoes of the members and do what's right for everyone. Um, from from a rookie in a new unit to the oldest head in the oldest unit. And yeah, I just I I respect Blake so much for the way that he approaches this job and the way that he just approaches responsibility. And you know, Blake's not going to run to be the treasurer again. And uh while I'll try and convince him until the last day of nominations to change his mind, um what I do know is that as long as we have Blake as a member, 2:41:39 uh we need to cherish that and take advantage of that because Blake has something really special to give this union and and I just really appreciate being able to to be witness to it and to benefit from it. And so with that, Blake, come on up. 2:42:05 >> I don't think I've ever got like an introduction. And that was a pretty pretty good one. It's really sentimental. That was really sweet. Um, yeah, I'm from Big Sky. I'm your treasurer. I'm the vice president at Big Sky. I I have a ton of crazy stuff to say. I feel like I have so much to learn at this stage in my like union engagement, but I was thinking of a few things and most of them are sourced from random things Ryan said throughout me knowing him, which is awesome. It's just kind of like a a wealth of knowledge. I think we have a lot to glean off Ryan Denine. Um, but like from my brief experience with Big Sky in the last five years, and it's not a unique story at all, but you can see how profound of an impact the union's had and it's obvious in so many ways and it's so grateful and I think I'm so grateful for it and I think it work is worth repeating and recognizing like every time we can but like with Big Sky obviously our wages are just so much better you know we have 2:43:07 such better job security we have such better representation we have a healthcare stipen which means so much to our patrollers and seasonal workers and it's a big [ __ ] deal and it's changed I think it's changed our experience and seniority so much in our culture a bit on patrol. Um like our retention rates are just phenomenal at Big Sky right now and like when I got a job there five years ago it was it was easy to get a job frankly and today I could not get a job at Big Sky um like we'll have 50 people apply for five positions and it's been like that for a few years and that's just that's just because the union and it's [ __ ] awesome. So like the at Big Sky and I'm sure you guys know too just the professionalism and the experience we've gotten from the union's outstanding and I think one reason at the unit level we've been able to do that so well and one reason we're good at organizing and unionizing in this industry is because 2:44:10 we have such amazing communities on the unit level and like our patrol teams and our lift maintenance teams. It's I mean it's phenomenal. And I think the reason I love ski patrolling is not only because of the medical work, which is awesome, and [ __ ] throwing explosives and doing avalanche work and powder skiing, which is amazing, but I can't imagine any other workplace where I know 120 people and I know them intimately and I know their stories and their kids and their history and their experience and what they do in the summer and like their thought process and how they approach avalanches It's just it's just amazing how we know like our whole team so well and yeah I can't think of any other workplace that that compares and I think that's our strongest skill and I think that's why we've been able to make those wins on the unit level and we've been able to get good contracts and and I think there's a long and bright future of continuing to do that. Um I think 2:45:14 this this is reminds me of something Denine said at our last meeting a month ago and he said, and I'm gonna probably misquote him when I quote Denine, but I think he said, "Socialize before you organize and organize before you unionize." What' you say? Socialize before everything. Everything. And that's that's what we do at the unit level. We socialize. We know each other far more than just giving each other like a union ask. We know each other. so much and we know what everyone wants from their life and where they're from. And I think that's one of the biggest places we can grow too on the local level because it's just a such a sharp dichotomy. Like we know our units, we know our team so well, but I don't really know you guys that well, you know, and I would love to know you guys better. And I think that's something we can work on. We're going to continue working on. And you know, we did a river trip earlier this summer on the San 2:46:16 Juan. Drink some water. And um Max organized it and we got a great opportunity to go on the San Juan with a ton of ski patrollers. And Max was really intentional about calling it our first annual. And that was really important to me because like we got to do that year after year and we got to do more stuff like that. But we went on that trip and we just [ __ ] we socialized and that's we're really good at doing that. So that's good because that's the most important thing. But we just hung out and we got to know each other and we enjoy the river. We drank beers and we just got to keep doing more of that and it was just so amazing. And I think that is is like the foundation of our future and the foundation of us as a local becoming stronger together. And I also think that that is, you know, we have here. Um, not only do we have some of these talks which are great and we have the workshops which are great and we're learning some explicit skills 2:47:16 about organizing, but we also just get to hang out and we get to know each other's names and see each other in person. We get to drink beers and we get to party tonight which is awesome. And so I think this is an opportunity to do one of the most important things we can do and one of the things we're best at which is just socialize and hang out and get to know each other. And I think if we're able to do that, we can do all the other things and we can have the solidarity and have the community. And then this does remind me of another thing Ryan Denine said while he was on that river trip and he was just, you know, on the raft underneath the canopy drinking his beer just daydreaming about radicalizing the world one person at a time. But and it sounds a little corny and cliche, but he was like, you know, together we can do we can do anything. Together we can do anything. And it does sound a little cliche, but like 2:48:17 It's really It's really true. Like we really have that strong solidarity and if we really have everyone we can do some amazing phenomenal things. Um and there's a lot of examples of that in labor history. And uh I think that's something we can do and we will do. Um, so I guess my call to action is to party tonight and just get to know each other and then more specifically, I guess I didn't talk about it, but I think maybe before you give any like union ask, we talked about asking somebody to do a specific thing. Before you do that with somebody, I think it's really important you know that person and you socialize with them. You know what they want. You know their dreams and not just you know what's going on in their workplace or what's shitty for them right then or what maybe they can do for you or the union but just like their story generally and you socialize 2:49:18 with them because I think that is yeah as Denine said the other other day I think that is the foundation. 2:49:46 That was awesome. Thanks, Blake. 2:49:56 >> Um, sweet. Going down the line of of heavy hitters here, our next speaker is Gary Jordan. Um, I've known Gary for seven or eight years at this point, I think. And, um, Gary's been working for this local as well as other locals in CWA District 7 for as long as I've been a member. Um, Gary is, I'm sure, a mentor to many of you and and goes without saying, a mentor to me. um what Gary has done for this local can't just be quantified because you know one day you're learning how to collectively bargain from Gary and the next day he's saying some hilarious witty southern phrase that actually teaches you how to live your life as a better person 2:50:57 and you don't realize it until you get home Um, uh, just the the depth of what you can get from Gary Jordan in in the time that you're able to spend with him is something that should be valued. Um, he gave us a little scare earlier this summer, but luckily his wife took away his motorcycle and and he's here on his two feet. Uh, without further ado, Gary Jordan, everybody. 2:51:45 Hi everyone. Um, I'm always really honored to be here. Um, really honored to be amongst patrol, but I'm always really honored to be amongst union people like this. This is the first time you've ever come to this. I strongly encourage you to come back. There's a whole lot of things that you will deal with throughout the year that drain that battery. Like we all know if we get a Sometimes we don't know a piranha bit us that you get those piranha bites and they start to accumulate. But then you come here and it's like a miracle healing. All my piranha bites I can feel them going away because you're amongst people that you know hear the same [ __ ] you do from their management of course but also from their members. Many of you have heard me say I love unions but sometimes union members not so much. uh because they have a lot of expectation for from people who volunteer their time. Um but simply put, it just doesn't work if you guys don't. 2:52:45 And so um all of us know, especially in this day and age, you don't have to look very far to find someone who [ __ ] about everything. Everything. Sometimes that person's mean, but you have to look long and hard to find people that will get off their ass and do something about it. But from right here, this unique POV, I don't have to look very hard. Every one of you did that. And to me, um, you should be proud of that to stand up for workers. Uh, a little bit about me because some of you know, and I don't want to be repetitive, but I grew up in the South, really poor. Um, and I mean, I thought everyone was poor and and then I realized, wait a minute, not everyone's poor. Um, why doesn't seem fair. Um, and then fast forward around 50 years and earlier this week, I got shown pictures of a wedding that was held at the top of Aspen. Yeah, this Aspen over here with 560 guests. 2:53:49 I don't begrudge anybody. I assume that person made all their money ethically and didn't exploit any workers. I have to think that there was a $150,000 worth of flowers there. And my tangential friend who went there, you know, he knows this guy, he's a personal trainer for this guy and this guy's flown him to this or flown him to that on the jet. As long as that exists, we should not have people living in a damn thing or living like you have to live in a dormatory. We're not asking for too much, but they constantly think it's too much. I distinctly remember steamboat many years ago and they were crying over 50 cents. The [ __ ] helicopter they just said was $4,000 an hour carrying [ __ ] I was like, "Hold on. I know you're broke. I can't hear you over the $4,000 an hour helicopter." So, I mean, my point is there's plenty enough money, but they want to convince us that there's not. And so, to ask for your fair share is not asking for too much. Um, 2:54:51 every dollar you earn, I mean, I think somehow we got tricked in this country. I'm glad I got a job. They gave me a job. Give you [ __ ] They gave you an opportunity to make money for them. That's it. And they're paying you the least they can get by with I mean there's more college degrees in here than I have and you guys all know economics. That's how it works. Uh and so I think we got to we got to press we got to press them. Um I think we're blessed with some really really good leaders here. But just know leadership in this is really hard. It's really hard. Um, these kinds of things will will build you up, but sometimes you need to take a step back. Your personal health, your mental health is more important than any of this. But I will rag you mercilessly if you quit without naming a replacement. I'm just telling you right now. That's dirty pool. You got to find me somebody, somebody to step up. But keep your eye out. Those people are everywhere. When you intentionally look for them, you will see them. And that is the one key way that I've seen you make this work easier for yourself is you start bringing more people in. We really are better. we get 2:55:53 a POV from everybody, even if you kind of don't like it. Um, I think it m it makes us better. And thinking about like what Ryan said and what Max said, I think this all starts with care for people. Everyone in this room cares for people. Everyone Everyone on that side of the podium. Did you guys seriously think I would put myself at risk to save one of these rich [ __ ] I'd let them code out and ski right by if I can get around, but you guys will all do that. I'm not doing it. I've I've been mistreated by him too much and I don't care for him and I know it's not all of them. Um but it's mostly um so I mean I I think hang in there, encourage one another, lean on one another. I one of the things I wanted to do when I first got this assignment was um everywhere I would go and there were only four units. Think about that. 2016 we'll have four units and I didn't think we were going to have a steamboat very long. I thought it was on the way out. That person who handed over to me said, "Yeah, they're barely hanging on." And when I met the people 2:56:54 that were uh running the union up there, and I was like, "Yeah, we are barely hanging on." But what they have now uh what they have now parallels anything. I mean, they get [ __ ] done. They get [ __ ] from management. They they give it to management. And so, anything can be turned around. Um but I remember like they were dealing with something and um Breck had organized at that time. So, we were up to five and I was like, you guys, they're dealing with this right over like literally right over there. It's two hours, but it seemed like they might as well have been in South America. And now it's gone to this. And there's real power in this um real power. They're always working, especially all the veil people. Sorry to make this veil centric, but um they're doing things at all their resorts so they think they can get ready that by God, we won't be caught off guard on another strike. we know they will, but they think they don't and they're spending a lot of money that they they could simply just put in the contract. You know, there's 2:57:55 another way to do that. And so, uh, I think what my point is, they're ongoing trying to figure out how to how to push against us. We have to continuously think about ways to push against them. Uh, and I'll close with this. I mean, I think I I kind of do love quotes, and I'll mess this up, but you get the idea. Like people don't really care what you know until they know how much you care about them. And if you if you start one of those dean conversations with somebody and you really care about them and you want to find out about them, what they're suffering through, what they're what they're delighting in, um you're about to get yourself a really strong union member that will be there with you all the time. And so, thank you all for all you do. Thank you for doing this. I encourage you to bring rank and file people to this. Uh, every one of these I've ever been to, union speaking, not patrol and maintenance speaking, uh, it's it it's recharging and it's invigorating. So, thank you for stepping up. Thank you for caring about each other and thank you for raising the standard for workers and the Jackson patrollers, thank you for their raise that you guys got for them. You did it. 2:58:54 I told a few of you outside and there's no other [ __ ] way to look at it. U, they were about to they were about to take the same steps you took and the billionaires bought them off. That wouldn't have happened if that weren't for the successes in this room. And so when you see them, tell them they're welcome. Tell them I said hi and tell them they're still welcome in this next time. But that's why it's simple as that. So, thank you all. 2:59:39 You don't know what I'm thinking about. 2:59:55 >> Definitely. Gary, don't crash your bike again. We'll go broke. What's the joke about Jackson Hole ski patrollers that they'll they'll tell you all about it or something? 3:00:21 Awesome. And um just like glad that you're here with us, you know. Um this is such like a I I come into this work thinking very like solely about the members. Uh sometimes to my own detriment like when I forgot to call Gary to make sure that this was on his calendar and he knew that he had to speak and stuff like that, you know. Um, and so I just really appreciate the flexibility and you being up here today, Gary. Um, our next speaker is Travis Brown. And Travis is the president at Steamboat Ski Patrol. And you know, I feel like Travis and I jumped into this work at right about the same time. uh as far as working on the local executive board and kind of being two feet in the water with it. And it's 3:01:22 really like it's been a hell of a journey that we've been able to take in together and we've seen folks come and go and you know there there's a number of us that have that have been here for this duration and it has started to feel like this kind of small tribe of us. Um, and what you know, there's a lot of things to value about Travis. He's he's an excellent leader. He's an excellent representative of his members. He is professional, appropriate, firm, polite. like he he he is the total package for someone that you would want to have leading you into into a battle the the scope of the one that we're in with this industry. Um, additionally, when Travis opens his mouth, everybody listens. And like we talk a lot about, you know, in organizing, there's there's organic leaders. There's there's people who like 3:02:25 if you if you want to organize this group of people, you better get that one, right? And Travis is that one. Um I have a profound amount of respect for Travis and the work that he does. And there's there's very few there's a select group of people that I go to with my ideas when I'm feeling a little isolated with them and need someone to bounce them off of. and and Travis is definitely on that list and and I keep that list tight. Um yeah, Travis, it's just been a real pleasure these last three years and I'm just really excited to give you the stage. Uh you know, we Ryan and I talked about it. We were like, should we just give Travis like 15 minutes? I was like, hell yeah. I've never heard a better idea. And so whatever you're going to do with your time, Travis, um I I have complete faith that we are all going to listen and it's going to be amazing. Uh without further ado, Travis Brown. 3:03:35 >> Thank you, Max. Very kind words. Uh that's it's funny that you said I can do whatever I want with my time because I've been joking for the past two days. I'm just going to walk up here with an AK-47 and start spraying, you know. Um, I might be the only one in this room who possibly is more radical than Denine. Um, I also I want to say I loved what Blake had to say. Let's just drink beer. That'll solve all our problems. Also, did you see a shirt? That's a killer shirt. Um, I want to make an announcement first. Uh, Steamboat is gonna host an a post party at our condo this afternoon or sorry, this evening. You have to be carrying a toaster to get in. And if you don't know what that means, ask somebody who was at our convention last year or you can ask me and I'll happily tell you the story. That's actually a joke. We're not >> Yeah, that's a joke. We are not having a party because we're going to be in Fris. Our 3:04:36 condo is in Breck. But if you guys want to Well, Adam wants to have a party, so we can have a party. Um, so if you find yourself in Breck late at night, uh, let us know. Uh, before I start saying all the things I want to say, I just want to talk for a moment about how [ __ ] rad was Jade. Um, Jade was at the COPE convention that I'm going to talk about and she was a wrecking ball. She took that that thing apart and destroyed it before the United Electrical workers knew what the hell was happening. And you know, she was pissed honestly about the lack of support that some of our de democratic representatives are giving us. and she was so pissed that she uh suggested that we endorse this crazy Republican representative from South Colorado who I I [ __ ] you not his picture on his website is him with an M16 and like you know this guy is going to do everything 3:05:37 in his power with his M16 to take away her rights you know but she was standing up there and saying let's endorse this guy because he did vote for worker rights right he did vote for bills that some of our Democratic legisl uh legislative members did not. And that's that. So, she was, you know, standing there kind of carrying a message of like we need to hold these people accountable. And it was awesome to hear her speak again today and I was just blown away. I want to like bottle that energy and fury that she has and make us all do a shot because, you know, that's that's that's how I feel a lot of the time. Um, so, uh, I'll just say thanks for the opportunity, particularly Max and Ryan for giving me an opportunity to talk up here. Um, I'm going to talk to you guys, um, about how awesome it was to be a delegate, uh, at the, uh, AFL CIO Coke convention a few weeks ago. Uh, I got to go there with Rob. If you guys don't know Rob from Cresbute Lift Maintenance, he is a gem. He's got a better beard than me. He's becoming an 3:06:38 uncle today. He loves trains. Get to know Rob. Um, all right. So, before I start talking about that convention, I just want to uh share some feelings I have about what I have seen over the past four years. Some of the stuff that Max was talking about and what it's been like for me as a representative and learning about the 7781. Uh, when I was elected to serve as a union rep, I didn't even know that Steamboat Patrols Union was part of a larger union. Not on my radar at all. Right. Uh, I learned about the 7781. I learned about the CWA because, uh, our then president said, "Hey, I'm going to Europe. You want to attend these Zoom meetings for me?" And I was like, "Yeah, okay." And that's that's literally how I learned that this whole thing exists, right? Had no idea. So, I learned in those first several meetings that we are members of a large national union. And that's cool. You know, that gives us way more power than 3:07:38 just being like, you know, it's a group of us at Steamboat Ski Patrol. I learned that we have brother and sister patrollers across the West that are engaged in the same struggle that we were and it's all you guys, you know. I learned that we were the United Ski Patrollers of America. That's cool, you know. And I also learned that we were in a state of disarray. Um, it was kind of scary what I found and what I learned about when I started attending those meetings. But, you know, it's wild to think now and knowing everything that I know and having partake in this for a few years that I didn't even know that this organization existed when I became a union member. And so, I've worked really hard to make sure that everybody at Steamboat knows about this that we have jokes. We have a supervisor who uh he says um you know so he'll get up in a morning meeting and he'll and we have a count we'll do an overunder you know eight and a half ums at Orion this morning you know uh I believe there was a count on me at our last union meeting of how many times I was going to say 3:08:39 7781 um but that's you know it's trying to push everybody into awareness of the larger things that we are trying to do um so I learned that we were basically broke and we were struggling with basic functions at the local level in 7781, right? And not only were our finances in disarray, we also owed the CWA significant amount of back dues. And while the 7781 had grown during that time, our ability to expand and recruit was limited by our own internal challenges. And uh it was not good. That was the state of our world when I was introduced to it. And I'm only bringing this up in order Contrast how far we've come. In my time as a representative serving steamboats patrol, we have added multiple ski and bike patrols, lift maintenance departments, and transformed into the United Workers. You know, something bigger than just ski patrol. We settled our debts with the CWA. And since we've 3:09:40 not only turned our finances around, we are now in a position to think about how we can continue to grow and aggressively expand our mission to other mountains and possibly ensure that every one of us can continue to live the life we dream of. that means a lot. Uh it's these efforts that will allow us to live that life while not only doing work that fulfills our souls, but also to thrive in in our mountain communities. We can continue expanding this fight and maybe someday we might be able to give every mountain worker the ability to thrive in their community as well. And this is within reach because of people in this room. This is a testament to people in this room. This is a testament to their efforts to write the ship. This is a testament to their efforts to fight against corporate power within the ski industry that has been congealing in the form of Veil and Alterara. This is a testament to everyone who has been committed to this local over the past 5 years. This is a testament to the individual units that have stepped up like Park City. You guys have led the way not only forcing the industry forward through the 3:10:41 threat of and an actual strike, but also for providing dedicated leadership both at the unit and local level to push this organ organization onward through its most difficult times and into a brighter future. And well, future feels pretty bright. I don't know if you guys feel that way. I mean, you know, our country's [ __ ] right now, but other than that feels pretty good. It feels like we are truly moving mountains together. So, thank you for allowing me to digress here for a moment before I say what I'm really gonna say. And this is what happens when you give me the m the mic, Max. Uh, but I just want to say thank you to those in in this room that have led us to where we are now. Thank you, Max. Seriously, thank you. Thank you, Ryan. Uh, thank you, Jackie, Anna Kendall, Andrew Py, Gray Tampa. I wrote wherever you may be because if you don't know Gray is was Stephen's past president and and on the like 7781 level it was like he vanished into thin air. Gray was a staple at every meeting. You like he would talk 3:11:42 and he'd talk and he had great points and then he was just gone. But Evan who's here from Steven's past enlightened me that Graham is great and doing well and I'm so happy to hear that. And Evan is here from Steven's past by himself. If you guys have not had an opportunity to say hi to Evan. you know, he doesn't know any of us, so we can get to know him. Uh, okay. Thank you, Kate Lips. Thank you, Gary. Thank you, Gary. Uh, thank you to people like Blake, Thomas Pman, Nick Lancing, Graham Tellide. Sorry, Graham. I don't know your last name. Uh, Connor Holt, Jamie from White Vish, and so many other unit representatives and individuals have stepped up recently and are carrying us forward. Thank you to every individual from the patrols and maintenance crews that we have added recently, particularly those that put themselves at risk and took the leap to join this union. Thank you to Crested Butide and Big Sky Patrols along with us, Steamboat, they've they've been here since before any of us were around, you know, and so to be in this fight for 3:12:43 that long, it's awesome. And without them, this organization would not have blossomed in the ways it is today. And uh you know, Gary, I hope we're doing an okay job now at Steamboat trying to get things back on track. >> I'm actually from Pennsylvania, but I, you know, I spent it, you know, I I my parents had a a house at the beach in New Jersey when I was growing up, so I spent a ton of time there. My bad joke about New Jersey is time spent in New Jersey will count towards time you have to spend in purgatory later. Um, so it was it was a true honor to represent you guys and represent the United Mountain Workers um at the AFL CIO COPE convention. So what is a COPE convention? Uh, even better than that, what is the AFL CIO? So as members of the CWA, we are affiliates of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organization. If you guys are unfamiliar, you are members 3:13:44 of this union. Uh it is the largest union in the nation. It's one of the oldest. Uh it's composed of many constituent unions such as our CWA, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, or for instance, the Colorado Education Association. You know, um that's the teachers here in Colorado. Uh by affiliating in one overarching union, we represent thousands of workers and wield tremendous influence on a state and national level. So, the Colorado COPE convention's purpose was to decide what Colorado politicians and ballot initiatives and amendments the AFL CIO will endorse for this year's elections. And those endor endorsements are critical to politicians that want the support of workers like us. It was uh it was a big deal for them. And honestly, it was it was a true uh grassroots democratic process to partake in. You know, a lot of different unions, a lot of people from different backgrounds coming together. Um, at one point I think Rob and I were sitting at a table 3:14:44 full of cops. That's pretty awkward for me, be honest, but they were super nice people. Um, the COPE convention was an opportunity for our union to hold representatives in Colorado accountable for their past votes in the legislature, if only by saying we support you or we do not support your candidacy in this election. It was a chance to withhold endorsements from politicians who did not live up to their word to protect workers by engaging in things like taking money unidentified corporate donors and who boked at their chances to vote in favor of legislation that protects and improves the conditions for workers. The convention was also an opportunity for us, Rob and I, to spend some time with our representatives and discuss the issues that are facing us every day here in the mountains. It was a chance to say, "Yeah, we ski and ride in some [ __ ] rad places, but this [ __ ] is hard. This life isn't always easy. it isn't given to us and we earn it and we need your help 3:15:45 and it felt really good to have powerful ears to say that too. Uh and you know I was surprised to learn that those ears were listening. Uh they don't hear our voices very often. We represent a voice that is under reppresented in the halls of power and we are an organized group of mountain workers that speaks for resort and mount community employees that can often be anonymous. a group that is transient and voiceless. And you know, they wanted to hear what we had to say. They were curious to learn about our experience, to learn about our problems, about our issues, and what they may be able to do to affect our lives. Um, so it taught me that our access to change through political action is real, that change is accessible, and it's really only dependent on our commitment and our dedication to reaching out and influencing our representatives. And in return, we can offer those reps 3:16:46 that ally with us an organized voice supporting them. Um, we can be door knockers. We can be the people calling on the Right. And so this gives us power uh it gives us power to share our experiences to inform those who create our laws of the problems that we face and to seek directly solutions to the challenges of living in our mountain communities. We need to use this power because the economic forces in mountain communities are against us. The cost of living is rising faster than our wages. Purchasing a home in the towns where we live, even a simple condo or starter home is further now than pretty much ever before. And the corporations that we work for are reacting to our efforts and strategizing on how to beat us. You guys heard us beating this drum. And they're working on how to keep our wages and benefits as low as possible. Without us working to fight against these factors and without help from our elected leaders, our future as workers in our mountain towns is bleak. 3:17:47 a mountain worker's chances of making our lifestyle work for their entire lifetime feels slim, you know, and I didn't write this down, but I'm looking around the room and uh no offense Gary, but besides Gary, maybe Jamie, I might be the oldest person in here. And you know what that says to me is just that it's hard. It's hard. Like to choose to be a ski patroller and do it for a long time is hard. And you know, I want every one of you guys that if this is what you want to be able to do for your life, you have the opportunity to do that. Here's the most powerful message preached again and again at the convention and it should empower all of us. No one is coming to save us. We hope for the good sold politician that when elected will listen to us and understand the issues we face, will solve our problems, will write the 3:18:48 injustices we see happening in this world, and will allow us to carry on unmolested in our daily lives. But the forces united against us are overwhelming our political system. Our polit our politics have skewed to the right of the political spectrum. And many of our supposed allies, Democrats who claim to be concerned about and fighting for workers, are now instead allied with those corporate powers that are inundating our professional and personal lives. We have to step up and fight for ourselves. If we are not each ready to do our part to further our cause, it will be too late. Now is the time for each of us to think of what we can do. And if not you, who among you can you encourage and aid in taking up the challenge of facing a title wave of greed? Be it running for your city council or your county commission, even possibly state representative or looking to do more in your MW unit or to take on more 3:19:49 here in this local. It is time for each of us to ask ourselves, what more can I do to return quality and fair fair wages to our society? What more can each of us do to ensure that we live as valued members of our community? Because no one is coming to save us. These are big questions with a big challenge to answer those questions. But this this room, this organization, this is our answer. This is the vessel that can help us tap the power to improve our world. We are the individuals who are willing to sacrifice our personal time and effort to change our communities for the better. And it's time to do more. We are the group that can determine the future by being willing to serve in our local governments. And if not from within, then by using our collective voices to support those who share our opinions and support the mission to improve our lives. I want to reference a specific example 3:20:50 from experiences of some of those here in this room just last year in Telluride. I'm thinking the experience of Tellide's Patrol who when in the midst of their strike last season felt that the voices of local business owners and as was put to me last night greedy uh realtors uh those business owners voices trumped their own with the local city council. Those business owners had existing relationships with council members. They were able to craft a message that patrol was selfishly undermining the economy of the town and therefore the community. And without a friendly voice in that council or a trusted relationship with which to counter those negative versions of the events, tell your eye patrol was left to do damage control. So just think for a moment how different that might have been if positive and open relationship with with members of that council have been established before the strike. Now consider how would it have gone if a patroller or former patroller sat on 3:21:51 that council. Now is the time to forge these relationships. Now is the time to push the members that you know who might join politics to do so before it is too late. Because the wolves are at the door and they are making friends with those who would increase our rent for their own profit and allowing allying with those who have no interest in the camaraderie of our mountain towns because another vacation home and a newer Tesla are their only goals. I think about how far we've come. United mountain workers. It makes me proud. And I think about how much we've gained. It's huge. I started at Steamboat Ski Patrol making 1350 eight years ago. I make more than $30 now. It's huge. But the steps we have taken are only the first steps on a determined journey. We have the power to reshape our mountains to mountain towns together. By working with those who hold power and by working 3:22:51 to have our allies and our members gain that power, we can reshape our world. Thank you guys. Appreciate 3:23:07 You're You're seriously not getting into Adam's party without a toaster. 3:23:18 >> Travis, you older than Lowry. Oh, nice. There it is. Um, thank you Travis. That was awesome. And uh I fully do not regret saying hell yeah. Give him whatever he wants. Um, we don't have this on the agenda, but I'm going to bring Connor Halt from Big Sky up here really quick. Connor is the new treasurer of our 501c3 nonprofit organization, Friends of United Mountain Workers, which was launched recently. Connor has been helping with the roll out of that, and I'm going to let him introduce the subject. Thanks, Connor. >> Yeah, Max is right. Uh, it wasn't on the agenda, so I didn't think I'd have to be up here speaking. Well, I'll keep it brief. Um Max and Andrew uh started Friends of United Mountain Workers, the 3:24:19 nonprofit is the affiliate of our local um and they put a lot of great work into it and u myself and two other members were um chosen post nomination process to be on the board of directors and um there's two former uh patrollers from uh PCP SPA or one current at most is mountain safety there and myself. Um, and I'm excited to kind of like have this framework um that Max laid out and and go with it from there. And we've been meeting since um this spring and putting some infrastructure together for this nonprofit and reading a lot of the feedback y'all had and gave in those surveys um for what you want to see done with it. And been really cool kind of just like spitballing with these two other folks of like what what we can do and where we can take this thing. And 3:25:19 I'd like to to use this time to kind of go over like the things we can and can't do. And it is a huge opportunity with a C3. You know, the IRS grants you this um tax advantage status. Um and with that does come some come some guard rails. Um you know, if we we raise money, you know, I can't can't authorize us to give that to a strike fund to any of our bargaining units, right? That would that would remove our tax exempt status right away. Um, but because it is uh a C3, it does give us a tremendous amount of opportunity for prospective donors to raise funds and those donor receipts do inspire a lot of people to give and I think that's huge. with that. I think the C3 can kind of take some of the the burden of of scholarships and um the burden of expenses from the local that can that 3:26:19 can benefit mountain workers as a whole and and by doing that, you know, by by using the funds we raise to put our name out there. You know, it is the friends of United Mountain Workers when a um prospective patroller copper, you know, is looking to um take a pro one course or is looking to get an EMT course to start ski patrolling or any mountain worker beyond our traditional scope of what our local represents, you know, wants to um uh take a guide course for their summer employment. Um when that scholarship comes from Friends of United Mountain Workers, it puts our name out there and they they take it home with that. And I think I don't think we can put a value on that. You know, when when they come home with a an award and they know where it came from and it came from an affiliate of a a local a pro labor organization. Um I think that excites me 3:27:20 and it puts our name out there um in a way that's unique that's unique and um that we haven't done before. you know, the the first steps we've kind of taken with this uh nonprofit is we've um worked on building a website and our soft launch from the seed fund and we have uh a bulk of which bulk of which which comes from the gener generosity of PCP spa. So, thank you y'all. Um, we are doing a soft launch of a a a broad beam scholarship that you can and any out mountain worker or prospective mountain workers eligible for and um whether that's a current member of this organization of UMW or a prospective u ski patroller or a non-member, you know, it's it's another resource out there for people in these high cost of living areas with uh lower than enough 3:28:22 compensation to um develop themselves and get the necessary education or continuing education that is often needed um in our workplaces. And um while it is open to all of y'all um these first scholarships, it's open to everyone too. And that's how you know we can serve the C3 status and the board would evaluate all of these scholarships and um award on a blind setting based on you know who who applied um and what they wrote and how they benefit. Um and it's it's a it's a great way and a great opportunity I think to like when that scholarship's awarded it does does put our name out there you know um and I'm excited about that and we were ski patrollers and former ski patrollers, not web developers, but we're we're uh quite close to being live with our website. And I know the point of being here in person today was to avoid more emails in your inbox, but when it is up 3:29:24 and running, which should be really soon with the scholarship page, um keep an eye out for that that email. Um and those applications are open to everyone. There's info on it, too. Um that's our first soft launch of what to do. And I have all these like lofty ideas of of what we could do and what we could publish and um data on, you know, cost of living in these these mountain towns. Like as Max said earlier this morning, um you know, there's a lot of precedent out there for nonprofits to to do that research and publish like cost of living data because that's inherently not political. That's just reality. And you know, like I'm like excited to spitball these ideas of things nonprofit can do that benefits our members by benefiting mountain workers as a whole while still um navigating the C3 status of being independent and being um inherently not political. I still think there's a huge 3:30:26 opportunity there and um it's a great way to like utilize these funds that might not ordinarily come our way from someone who's expecting a donor receipt um to to put it to work to still ultimately benefit this community. If anyone has any questions about the C3 or Friends of right now or anytime, just give me a call, shoot me an email. Our info, our email is infow.com.org.org. 3:31:04 >> Just.org. >> Yeah. Thanks. 3:31:17 >> Sweet. Uh, thank you, Connor. And excellent work. It's been really cool to watch this um come together. Um, bio break or straight into the 30 minute strike panel? Bio break. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. Not much. Yeah. Bio break. Five minutes. 3:40:07 Neo, shut up. >> Sweet. Thanks, guys. Um, thanks for hanging with us. We're gonna do our best to keep this thing moving and also not uh remove any content from from this production. That's probably I just switched them up. Um, this is the last kind of big group thing that we have on the schedule aside from coming back and adjouring after these workshops. Um, and we're going to do a a panel discussion with four of our members who have been on strike. uh they've been very gracious and willing to give us their time and to get up here and and be vulnerable about their experiences. So, please express appreciation to them later on because it's not easy to talk about uh things that felt extremely 3:41:08 difficult and personal for these groups of workers. Um and oftentimes like they were on a little island with just the folks that they were on strike with. And that is really how it can feel sometimes. It's incredibly isolating and and scary and stressful. And so again, I really appreciate these four people being willing to do this. Um, without further ado, from Tellyide, Graham Hoffman and Jackie Kernney from Park City, Al Bagley and Amy Lad. 3:41:58 Is everybody comfortable? >> Cool. I I switched your microphones off because it was doing a weird feedback thing. So, we might just need to like play a game with each other. Um, first uh a heavyhitting question. if you guys could just introduce yourselves um and and give any like opening remark that you'd like to but an introduction would be great. Thanks. >> My name is >> in the microphone or it doesn't count. >> My name is Graham. I'm the president and tellide. Uh this is my I'm going into my sixth year as president. This is my ninth year on the bargaining committee. Um this was I think I've done four contracts now, two with Tony. um and to as president and one halftime when we walked out of the the room. >> My name is Jackie. As you know from earlier, I'm the VP of the 7781, but I 3:42:58 am also um the secretary for Telly Rides Union and I was among other things doing a lot of our communications um during the strike and it was my first contract I negotiated. Um but I did sign on to my nomination. We'll talk a little more about this later, I think. But having a already kind of having an idea of this being a potential outcome of this session. >> Hi everyone, my name is Allison Bagley. I'm the president at Park City. This will be my second year in this role. So when we went on strike, I was a rank and file member. I was on the mobilization committee. Um it was my very first time really getting involved with my unit and understanding the whole process. So yeah, that's that was kind of my perspective when we went on strike and I learned so much from it and so that's kind of how I'll be speaking and answering these questions from just a 3:43:59 rank and file member on the picket line but learned so much and yeah excited to talk about it. >> Hi everyone, I'm Amy. Um I serve as our social media steward of Park City. Um, I was also brought on right before, well, I guess like October time frame before we went on strike in December. Um, I had been the safety committee before, but I had never really like done anything social media. Um, so I'd never been on our board. Um, really just a steward level gal in our unit. >> Um, I think to kind of maybe start the conversation as best as you can, like could you tell us a little bit about like when you realized the strike was kind of going to happen was going to be necessary and and and when did the broader membership do you think kind of did it dawn on them that this was going to happen and and what kind of steps did you take to to kind of bridge that gap between you know maybe the people at the bargaining committee and then the actual folks the 3:44:59 rank and file you guys can speak to what you came >> um yeah so like I said I was brought on in October uh we ended up going on strike in December mber. So when I came into it about this time frame, I would say probably our negotiators and our executive board had known for a while. They had been negotiating for I don't even know how many months. Um and I think they were seeing really zero movement specifically when it comes to like the wage and benefit side of things. Um, and so to their credit, like they had a escalation timeline already ready, and this was back in September, October. Um, so I think they realized a lot sooner. Obviously, it was never anyone's goal to go on strike. That is not the goal. Uh, so they were trying to do every little step possible to avoid it. Um, but yeah, I think about that October time frame, I don't want to say they knew we were going to do it because we were trying to avoid it, but that was probably when they were like, "Okay, we 3:46:00 got to really get the ball rolling on how we're going to get this uh thing to actually work." Um, and then I would say for the rank and file members, um, it probably came close to like when the season started and we knew we weren't seeing any movement uh, from the company on wages uh, or the important articles in the contract. And I think everyone knew that uh at least for Park City's history like we've gotten so close to going on strike many times. Max would probably know better than me, but uh like when I was a rookie uh this is my fifth year, we almost did the thing like we did the strike authorization vote and anyways ended up coming to a contract at the 11th hour. So, I think that everyone knew that like we'd gotten as close as we could in the previous contract seasons and this was the year that like if we don't actually do this thing, they're going to know we're we like either like can't or won't whatever. Um, and so we actually got to do the thing. So, that's what I think. Do you have anything to add? 3:47:00 >> Yeah, I think just for me personally, I was on the mobilization committee, so we were having meetings with the board and calling people one-on-one, having those conversations. And the first action we did is we all wore our union t-shirts to our opening meeting, general meeting of the season. And the CEO of Park City, um, Dedra Walsh and Mike Lewis, the, um, department, the mountain ops, yeah, VP, whatever. They were both there and, um, we were all wearing our shirts and I remember them getting up and saying something and for me personally, that's when it dawned on I was like, "Wow, we have so much power right now just wearing these shirts, which is such a small thing, and they're here because they're scared. Like, they are usually not at that meeting." So, personally, that's when I kind of realized we're probably going to do this and we probably need to do this and I think it's going to work. Um, and then I think the membership or everyone else probably a little bit down the line when we were doing practice pickets and actually 3:48:02 doing a little bit more high consequence actions instead of just wearing shirts was when it might have dawned on people more. >> Um, from our perspective in Turide, uh, I'll go back three or four years to our previous contract before this one. Um that contract was far and away the most contentious that that process had been since the beginning. Um since we first formed a union. That was the first time we ever went out of contract um in our history as a union. And by the time that we I think it was November by the time that we took a contract uh back to the membership for a discussion and for a vote, you know, that was we felt strongly this is the best contract that we can get for everybody at this time and this isn't good enough. Um that mandate was made clear to me. It was made clear to the committee at that time and the committee moving forward that this this last year's outcome could absolutely be possible and is probably on the table if they're going to fight 3:49:03 us over over so much um going back then. As far as building I don't know building that those steps with our with our membership. It's something that we've been talking about for three years now. Um in refresher every year and in all of our other union meetings that start putting money away uh start preparing. This could be happening. Um we are back in ugly waters with with ownership and this is very much uh on the cards. >> Okay. >> Thanks guys. Um I'd like to hear You guys talk about the structure tests that happened within your units prior to going on strike. You know, obviously you don't just one day in negotiations say, "All right, it's a strike." And everybody walks out. Uh, you know, they talked about the t-shirts. I know that 3:50:04 I've I've seen images of practice pickets and all of that. And I I kind of want you guys to talk about that and how how that relates to working with the membership to build confidence in in the choice that you're making to go on strike. >> Yeah, I mentioned the t-shirts that we did and I think doing simple actions like that show a lot and if you can get someone to wear a t-shirt, you might get someone to do the next step and you need to build it step by step. Um, you can't just jump from wearing a t-shirt altogether and walking into a meeting to striking. And I think what built my personal confidence was going to the mobilization meetings and seeing how many people were showing up and how many people were willing to take hours out of their week to call individual people and have these really tough conversations. And that was my first experience doing that. I had no idea what I was doing. I was doing Yeah. I was just talking to 3:51:06 people, telling them what I knew and listening and trying my best. And those conversations were really, really draining, especially with those number two people like Ryan was saying that are kind of on the fence and have a lot of questions and have a lot of concerns. And I'm new to this, too, and I didn't know what the answers were, but we figured it out. And so many other people were in my similar position, putting themselves out there and really believing in the movement and learning as we went and putting in that work made me believe in it. And then we did all these different structural tests. I think the most empowering one for me is when we picketed outside of a bargaining session and we had I don't know the exact number but it felt like we had literally every single person there and our negotiators walked in and we had opened up a bunch of the windows near the conference room that they were in and the noise that everyone was making was insane. It was probably the coolest 3:52:06 thing I've ever been a part of, like that moment. And we were all screaming and chanting and they came in and shut the windows and were visibly angry. And then our negotiators told them, "Hey, like it's not just us in this room. All of our unit members are out there and they want this too and we're serious about going on strike and fighting for what we need." And they got up and walked out of that negotiating room. Um, and that was for me personally, I don't know what the board thought or what that decision was to go on strike after that, but that was like, okay, we're ready. Like, people are showing up and people are screaming right in front of their bosses telling them what we want. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> The police were like >> The police were like, "Hell yeah." >> Yeah. They're like, they're like, "This is peaceful. you're fine. >> Um, for our structural tests, um, I think something that we're 3:53:08 very proud of in Tellide is our our membership is all 100% dues paying members. Um so in the sense of of trying to it allowed us to the spend our time building a consensus of how to go about this um rather than are we going to go about this and we had a lot of discussion about making sure before we we took that final step um before we took that that final plunge um to make sure that we all understood the ramifications of going out and going out against a crazy lunatic. Um it was we knew it was going to be different from from Veil. We knew that that there was no there's no plan. There never was a plan. There still is no plan. Um but that we were able to spend that time building consensus as to how to go about it. And we couldn't be more grateful for for Allison and for Kate um for for laying out that groundwork of of here's how you can do this with the t-shirts. Here's how you can work a a practice strike. Um, to which our French exchanger was very mocked us um, excessively of, "Oh, what the [ __ ] is a 3:54:09 practice strike in France? You just [ __ ] go on strike." He just threw his cigarette in someone's face and just walked away. Yeah, >> we should have been on strike from the get-go according to Brace Priest. Um so being able to build that consensus um beforehand up to and during um and let the group kind of figure out how we want to go about this as a group um was valuable for us. >> And I'll just add I think this goes a little bit back to that first question but um I think for us even building like the like pre-structure to the structured test was really effective like had mentioned and like Amy said, obviously the goal is never to go on strike, right? But we had prepared our group and had been preparing our group for three years for this being a potential outcome. So I 3:55:09 think when we finally got to it, you know, we were having conversations with people, it wasn't so much like, are you willing to do this? It was more like this is looking like where this is headed and you know we've already talked about it. Are you still on board? And um I think we had you know we had taken like a a strike vote quite a bit before we actually talked about um going out and we knew we would work for you know over a month um without a contract hoping that we would reach something. But we already had established that solidarity um before we did these practice um practice strikes and things like that. So we knew we had um I want to say we have one person who is not on board, but we're pretty much 100%. Um, and I'll say too with that, I think I think like reading we learned from that, it's a little tangential, but what 3:56:10 we learned from that also is being able to like read the room and if you do have that no vote, you know, kind of weighing what that no vote is worth. not to sound, you know, callous and say that that person doesn't matter, but knowing why they're voting no, knowing how they relate to the rest of your group is also really important. And in this case, we felt really confident that there wasn't necessarily going to be a lot of buy in with this one no vote. So, we really felt like we had that like 100% everyone on board. >> Uh, and through those discussions, we we did figure out and we turned her around at one point. She was just misinformed and had no idea. >> Yeah. >> Um but then went back to misinformed and no doesn't matter. Um, but just going back and adding some color on on building that consensus through the process and knowing when this could be a possibility Tony brought up in the car yesterday of of we we try to keep our membership um a breast of every meeting um the tone of all of the discussions um 3:57:13 coming out of of of all of our all summer long and into the fall and going into the winter of of letting them understand that this is getting uglier. This is getting uglier from our own director. This is getting uglier from the company and this is just snowballing uh towards towards the in inevitable. 3:57:41 >> Does anybody have a question they want? >> Gabby, it's your time to shine, Gabby. 3:58:01 You guys mentioned a couple times that, you know, striking's never the goal, and that's not what we're looking to do. As someone who uh dreams maybe of being part of a successful strike, uh get my cart punched as a, you know, quality organizer. What would you say to talk me off the ledge, I guess, when it comes to strikes? 3:58:35 >> What would you say to the aspirational striker? I would say that and I think it was also like no I just watching your strike confirms this is that you there is no way to prepare for what's going to happen like you don't know what the company's going to do. You don't know how the community is going to react. I think what hit hardest for myself was not only our fellow patrollers that had to work, like our supervisors um that we are close with, but there's not in our unit that were forced to work, but um other employees at the resort were heavily affected by our strike. Um, and like obviously we know what we're doing is for the greater good and that they will eventually benefit from it, but I think that we are still working on repairing those um, relationships with our like lifties and ski instructors and uh, like the hosts who had to like regurgitate the company's propaganda. I don't know if that's the right word, but 3:59:35 like they had to like smile along and pretend everything was fine uh, when they were having a really horrible time, too. Um, so yeah, like we as patrol like we benefited a lot, but I think that I could have never expected what the experience on the mountain was for our fellow um, employees. >> Yeah. And I think it's you never know what financial hit you'll take going on strike. You have no idea how long you'll have to be out there. Luckily for us, we had incredible support from the community and a huge strike fund come in and we were able to pay everyone on the picket line basically their normal wage, which was insane and something I never thought was going to happen, but the company could take away your health insurance. We had unit members who um had big health concerns or had their partners were pregnant and different things that we couldn't ensure security for. Um and so I think saying 4:00:36 striking is never the goal. There's just so many things that you have to consider and weigh the options of what's worth it and what's not and what the outcomes could be. I think it's a really powerful thing that we should always be prepared for and I mean we all did it and I don't think we regret it. We got really amazing things and I think it was an amazing thing to be a part of but it's not always the goal I guess definitely not the goal. Um, we went through, I don't know, six, eight sessions with in with a mediator somewhere around there. Um, within the 30 minutes of the first session of the first day with the mediator, she was like, "Yeah, there's no [ __ ] deal here. I don't know what they're talking about." Um, so knowing that was both refreshing to have an outsider like, "Okay, we're not we're not crazy. um we're trying all the steps, you know, well, we're willing to 4:01:37 to go through this process. Um we're we're willing to try everything and meet any time up until it didn't work. >> Yeah. And I'll add, you know, often people talk about a strike as being like the nuclear option that we have, and it does truly feel like that. I think for us and what was a big difference between us and Park City is that Tellyide is so remote and so isolated and our management was so like I think nobody knew what a veil was going to do and our ownership is uniquely un unpredictable and irrational I think. And um I also preface this by saying I I think that this is an amazing stro show show of our power and I am fully supportive of people going out. I think just in terms 4:02:37 of being prepared for the outcome, you know, we destroyed the local economy when we walked out. I mean, everything shut down. They closed, you know, they closed the ski area and the way people reacted to that was really varied. Um, but a lot of people were really scared and financially stressed and um, you know, we were the dog in the room to kick and like that's they had the most access to us and so they contacted us. You know, I don't live in the town of Tellide. Graham does. our especially our executive board members who everyone knew who we were like it was hard for them to exist as just as people in the town of Tellyide they were being harassed like and so there's there's that element like it was extremely effective for us you know our wages are the best they've ever been we got all the money that we walked 4:03:39 out over um at the end of the day but it wasn't there there's just there's a cost to it that you can't avoid and a strike is meant to be disruptive and like in that way we were very successful. It was extremely disruptive but there's no way to kind of like target the damage only to the company. There's going to be collateral damage and that can be really emotionally challenging. I think that was what was really hard for most people in our membership who were having a hard time that came to me um is they were really upset because their close friends were really scared and really upset even though they were supportive of us. 4:04:36 Your question was a a an interesting one, an aspiring striker, etc. My choice was strike or leave. There was no halfway. If we did not fight for and succeed in making a real living, I was done. That's where it was for me. I'd been at it for many, many years. It was my soul. This job isn't a hobby to me. It's my thing. That's who I am. And if we had not gone on strike, I would have quit and left. If we'd have failed, I'd have quit and left because I couldn't make ends meet. There's no joke. There's no funny here. Maybe you're single, don't have responsibilities, kids, so on so forth. Remember that your colleagues do. So never ever take it lightly. When I made the decision for myself that here's 4:05:38 the edge of the cliff and I'm ready, then I did not hesitate to speak out in our meetings and encourage people and strengthen people and help them armor themselves. I had no hesitation and I did no longer care if the company cut my throat. Fine, I'm leaving anyway if we fail. So I didn't hesitate and I was not anonymous. This is how serious it is. Don't ever ever take it lightly. 4:06:20 >> Hi guys, I'm with Keystone and we're bargaining come May. Um, I mean, we all have some pretty big asks, I think, coming up. So, I think it's going to get drawn out pretty far, maybe to a strike. Hopefully not, at least close to I could see that happening like coming to an agreement next November or December. Um, I guess my question is part of good faith bargaining is give and take, right? So, when you guys realized you were getting to a strike, were you at all regretful on some of the things you had given up prior to that that were no longer on the table? And how would you recommend managing that? >> Um, I have just one really specific thing. I really regretted that we gave up our healthcare stipen. I think that makes a huge difference for people even feeling like they're taken 4:07:20 care of and we it was not a lot of money and we should have held on to that. 4:07:35 >> Yeah, I would I would second the healthcare thing. Um, but as far as like I think we've talked about this a bunch of like you got to know what your members are willing to uh give up or like succeed if you will. Um, so keeping a a really close tab on like I think we sent out a huge survey um like a week into the strike of like what are you willing to continue to strike over, what are you willing to not? And so like it didn't really matter what I as Amy wanted like what did the majority of our membership want? and um like I wanted healthcare but 80% of our I make that number up uh didn't like wasn't willing to continue the strike over that and so that's why that make I think that probably helps answer that a little bit better of just like yeah make sure you keep probing your membership for like what what is this worth it for you guys >> other than the healthcare um for me we as Jackie said when when we came back we got the total dollar amount Um, we got 4:08:37 the the percentages to the point, um, we they came back with what we needed, what we asked for. We didn't go down a dollar. We didn't finish the fight of our wage structure. Um, we moved our base pays up significantly. We could not, we had modified some of our skills, but we went into this that the wage structure needs to make sense. Um, and we weren't able to finish finish that fight. Uh, so we couldn't fully apply the money in some certain places. Uh, and that money ended up just going to to bonuses that which is great, but um, not not finishing that structure was was disheartening. 4:09:24 >> So, um, Alex here kind of talked about how he's dreaming someday of doing a strike. Um, and I know for a fact he would without a doubt and he would probably fight it forever. But I know there's people out there that maybe on the opposite side of the spectrum that say they want to and they're like excited about it and then all of a sudden it we're striking. And how did you all manage those folks that maybe are excited to or want to and then they kind of get the cold feet, maybe cracks start to form? How did you manage those folks or did you notice any of that throughout your strike? Some people had to be reigned in and that's okay. And we just channeled their energy into different places. Um or we used them as as our rahrh cheerleaders for for the day. Um and made sure that they understood their ramifications if they were to uh go over the line. Um so putting a leash on that energy was uh a 4:10:26 a good problem to have. Um, you know, as we go into week two, um, that that strike fatigue, um, is is incredibly difficult. Um, and fighting that, uh, was was a challenge and every day was was different. You know, as we started and ended every day, it was the only way to learn how to to strike is to go and strike. Um, there's there's no playbook and we're so grateful and thankful for everything that that Park City told us and taught us and showed us and the way they went about it. Um, and we applied everything that we could and Tide was just different. And just learning how to how to do that on a day-by-day basis um, for all of the characters on our patrol uh, was just building that consensus together. >> Yeah, I think we just had to meet people where they were at and continuing those one-on-one conversations. I know there were some people that came out on the picket line the first few days and then felt like they couldn't be out there anymore and stayed home. They didn't 4:11:27 cross the picket line, but they weren't out there holding a sign with us, which was a big bummer, but that's where they were at and they weren't crossing the picket line. And at the end of the day, that's a win. So, I think yeah, each person is different and just continuing to check in and not assuming anything. You can never assume what your members are thinking and it changes really fast. So continuing that mobilization committee every day, the strike and yeah, keeping on top of it. >> We got this from Park City, but having our um our picket captains was a really good tool in in handling people who, you know, were starting to get fatigued by the whole process. We tried to appoint people into those roles that um are empathetic and observant and I feel like they did a really good job and kind of like natural leaders within our crew um that they were able to speak one-on-one 4:12:28 to their team which we don't have a huge you know we're only 68 so um those those teams are only like eight to 10 people I think is right and um so they were able to kind of catch that before it it kind of it got worse if you know what I mean. And then I you know we ultimately had um I think like one or two people who were just like I'm not going to be on the picket line and we kind of had to just accept that and not spend too much energy on it. and just having the flexibility um to nothing is black and white. Um having the flexibility to either find something else for them to do that's not on the picket line um in other ways that they can support us behind the scenes. Um yeah, in that sense just be flexible. 4:13:29 Um, so I agree that we, you know, like we have a responsibility to avoid a strike if possible, but I also do kind of agree we have a responsibility to position ourselves kind of like you guys have mentioned um so that if that did happen um you know you'd be able you'd be ready. Um, so I guess I'm just curious if you guys could share anything in general. Um, things you learned that went well, maybe didn't go so well as far as like positioning or was that uh was that conscious or did you guys just kind of arrive and you were like, "Oh, like we're in a good spot for this." 4:14:12 Uh yeah, we learned from uh Kate told me early, stop the donut train. Um >> sorry, the question being what did we what did we learn or 4:14:37 >> the position of being on strike? 4:14:47 Yeah. Um that again just goes back to from from that last contract and having a robust discussion about that. Um and that was that was passed um overwhelmingly and 98% or something um but or passed and that that this needs to improve and this needs to approve the next contract. We're sick of kicking the can down the road. Um, we have kicked that can as far as we can kick it and we kicked that can as far as we could take it um this go around and eventually the [ __ ] has to hit the fan. Um, and so keeping keeping our membership um apprised again of of not only just the the context but but the tone of these meetings um really helped to make make that consensus building um easier, more straightforward. And I think the threat of going on strike can be just as powerful as going on strike. And getting ready for it is training that muscle and if you need to use it, it's there. So passing that. We 4:15:48 did a bunch of different steps to ramp up with social media, press releases, practice tickets, all these actions and building slowly up until the strike authorization vote. And when that passed, I think it was like 100% or 99 or something, 100%. Um, that was a big sign to the company that we were ready. And unfortunately, it wasn't enough, but that can be. And so being ready for that, I think is really important. >> I'll say like just one last thing that we didn't have control over that I think might help us is like the weather. We had like been ready to do this thing and we were like, "Oh, we're not sure." uh because of snow. Uh it had been a low snow year like Christmas itself was very low snow but like three days later a giant snowstorm came in. Had that not come in I don't know what our timing would have be like we might have changed the I you know so there's there's other factors that you still can't even plan for um that have nothing to do with like 4:16:51 mobilizing and escalating. Um, so that's yeah, trying to just predict every outcome is it's exhausting, but it's it's what we sat there and did. 4:17:07 >> Hello. Hello. Um, how is your relationship with management post strike and how's the team handling it? >> Sorry. Um, so I came in in my role the first season after strike with our new contract and it was all new board, which I think was really good to get new faces into leadership dealing with management. And our goal last season was to have a better working relationship with management and be able to talk about things. And we did that. I think we spent so many hours talking about things. The company hired a outside mediation company called Civility Partners, which was kind of [ __ ] to try to make our relationship better, but it did get us all in the same room. And we got all of our entire board in the same room with all of our managers and all of our supervisors, and we talked about what it was like to be on strike from both 4:18:07 sides, which I do think was helpful. Um, I think it was partially a publicity stunt for the company to do that, but we definitely put in a lot of work. Now it's it's fine. Like I feel like I can talk to management really openly and I feel really comfortable saying whatever I need to say and I think they have decent respect for me. I have some respect for them. Um, and I think it's enough to be able to do what we need to do, but it took a lot of work. And I think we sacrificed getting our members to do things last season. I think a lot of people were beat down from the strike and didn't want to ruffle any fe feathers last season and so the board decided to fight really hard in the grievance room and we did and we got a lot of wins that way. Um, but I think this next season I want to see our unit do more and that's on me 4:19:09 and my board to facilitate that. >> Our relationship with management is complicated. Our management is complicated because it doesn't exist. Um, we we I can't I don't know how to explain ownership. Um there's no one who he just fired his his buddy who was I guess our deacto CEO or COO or C something something. Um so there there really is no one between owner and the departments. Um it's it's a difficult it's difficult. We have a new patrol director this year. Um our previous one was fired in the spring. So, we're learning. We're just learning this relationship now and we'll we'll see where it goes. Um, yeah, I don't >> It's not great. >> Yeah, I I would agree with what Graham said, and I I think I would just 4:20:09 elaborate on that. Our relationship within our patrol team with our management, you know, with our supervisors being part of the union, we really only have four people. Yeah. four people outside of the union that are part of the patrol department. And um the people who are outside the union, the patrol department we have a really excellent relationship with. Um they we're a really tight-knit unit and um even though it was hard and stressful for them sometimes, it was really in my opinion pretty easy for us to talk about that when we came back to work. Um, and they're very supportive. But yeah, I I think our our relationship with management is is not great, but it's because the management is very dysfunctional, not because they are like out to to there isn't management. There's like a crazy 4:21:11 CEO billionaire. And so, you know, they they're not like out to it doesn't feel like they're like out to get us or anything. He's there's no plan. That's like that's the biggest thing. That's what Graham always says. He's like, if you think there's some evil master plan, there's not. There never is. 4:21:38 Uh guys, we're going to go with those two hands that were raised and then we're going to call it. If you had to do it again, what would you do differently? >> Start with one thing and I'll pass to Graham. Um, our our big thing we think feel like we lost the reigns on was our relationship with the small business community. I think and we learned this from Park City after that they had done some some leg work before the strike to make those connections. um we didn't have a really reliable line of communication with this like small business organization in Telide which is a lot of Main Street businesses and so by the the time but Telleski did and so by the time we realized they were getting a ton of misinformation and had decided that we were the enemy and were like lighting their torches and getting their pitchfork because it was too late um to 4:22:39 really get a hold on that narrative. I think if we could do it again, we would do that leg work, go in door todo and put together an email list, you know, a communication sign up of some sort where we could directly interface with these people that we knew would be affected. I think we also maybe underestimated how much they would be affected. We thought people would be like trapped in Tellide, but because the ski area closed, that didn't happen. And I think it's would be to just hedge your bets and establish those relationships in the community. Give them someone to talk to from your your unit that they can ask questions to because in the absence of that, they're just going to get together and like talk [ __ ] and get upset because they're scared of what's happening. I think to build on that with the businesses and the community um would have been a more robust discussion on 4:23:41 the timing. Um we I know from experience that that Chuck doesn't care and doesn't care about money. Um I think we all underestimated I don't know the stupidity um of of management that they just did not care. um they'll they're going to close the mountain down and whatever. And so maybe the holidays was still the best choice. Um but I think we could have talked about that more. Maybe we should have just gone out from the get-go. Um I think that warranted more discussion looking back. I don't know if I would have done anything differently because I didn't have a lot of power and say over the whole unit, but something I wish I was mentally prepared for was how hard it would be to go back to work and rebuild relationships with supervisors and it at because they were working when we were on strike and at the end of the day I think it's on them and they don't understand what we were doing and we got 4:24:42 them a huge raise. Um, but I didn't expect that and that was naive to think. So, you will burn relationships and you have to remember that do you care enough to keep those um to not like be a part of an amazing movement. So, I think it's completely worth it to go on strike and be a part of something this amazing, this cool for these people that care and damage relationships. And if the people that are taking it personally cared enough, they would understand that. >> I think I'll speak to this specifically from like the media and marketing side of like we thought we had a clear message of like what we were asking for. Um, you know, what was going on in the room and I think you always know the news always gets it wrong, but like this was my first time like being in the thing the news was talking about. And I would read these articles and I'd be like, "What? But where did you get that from? Um, so I I would have loved to 4:25:44 have like a we had specific people who were supposed to talk to media and we did a good job of that, but I don't think those people had like a coherent um message they were giving. Uh, so I think going back we would have had a more robust plan of like this is what you're going to say to the to media, this is what we're going to put out. Um, yeah, and just that way it just is more clear. I think we had so many people who were so confused what we were asking for, what we wanted. Um, and I think yeah, that that's what I would change. 4:26:25 Um, I was curious what like what an ideal day on strike looks like. Um, I was kind of a distant observer, but I know tell you you guys did some like food stuff for the community. I don't know if you were doing soup or I mean what type of like community volunteering and outreach and how can you spend your time on strike? Um yeah. >> Uh I think it was the ultimate like divide and conquer. Um we had our board and negotiators that like um honestly didn't spend that much time on the picket line because they were so busy, you know, doing the meetings and like thank goodness for that. Um, I think we had an awesome group of people who like managed the signs. Um, you know, that they went to one place every night. Um, and then they were able to pick them back up the next morning. So, like that was really important. We had a another similar group like dealing with the food. Um, yeah, we got a lot of food donations and that was gnarly to keep track of and like not waste it, you 4:27:26 know, because that's not what you're trying to do. Um, so yeah, I think like divide and conquer is the only way to do it because there was just so much going on. >> Um, an ideal day would be I think we learned how to how to focus on the little things and those little things were going to add up um to the big picture. And we'd start every morning just ourselves with a little uh maybe an inspirational quote or something and be be meeting away from the public eye. Um, we'd build that consensus um for the day of what we want to do. We'd leave it up to the group. We'd leave it up to those captains or or rahas um whoever they were for the day. Uh where they wanted to go and when they wanted to go and how they wanted to go about it. Um we let the group determine together um how they wanted to go about their actions. Um, and uh, some things we learned, some things work, some things didn't work, and some things were just needed to be changed a little. And and and moving around and not staying in the shadows. Um, and yeah, going up to 4:28:28 the village, getting we we learned going up into the sun was an important part of our day. Um, as as little as that that sounds, but embracing the little things and the minutiae of every day of walking over to to the places together. Um, yeah. I guess just to talk a little bit about our like community relief efforts. Um we did, you know, a few different things. Um like we were, you know, trying to host like an inexpensive lunch or um food drives during our strike, which um I think, you know, felt pretty good. It also felt like we were was trying to do everything, you know, when we had our whole unit to be looking out for who also wasn't getting paid during this time. Um, but we were we're doing a bit of that and I 4:29:28 think I don't regret doing that. Um, but it would have been worth having, you know, kind of a separate committee to be working on that. And then, you know, just to also speak a little bit about like the community reception of that type of thing. Like there's going to be people who are angry that you're on strike and a lot of people, you know, the loudest voices were like, you know, I don't want a [ __ ] free lunch. I want to go back to work. And it's like, well, yeah, us too. Um, but but there were a lot of people who were really grateful for that. And I think, you know, people can talk [ __ ] all they want. like it was a beneficial thing to do for the community. Um, even if people were mad at us for doing it. 4:30:20 >> Only if you say it into the microphone. >> I was uh listening to a couple things you guys said and I did want to talk a little bit about what happens on my end. Um because the Park City strike, the folks that were on the bargaining committee were really worried because you know I made a little joke about holidays, but most people are on holidays at that time and they were like, "Look, if we go on strike in Christmas or the CWA people that say yes, are they going to be available?" And I was like, "Yeah, yeah." Uh and I wasn't 100% sure they were either. Um we have a nine-page strike manual. It kind of walks you through some of the things you do to for the prep. Um, but I distinctly remember I got a telephone call from my big boss in the district in district 7 here and she had the big boss from DC and it was like, have they done this? Yes. What about this? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I mean, you guys had prepped so well specifically at Park City and then you trained Tellide that um I can 4:31:23 remember Sylvia saying, "Sounds like you got your [ __ ] together. I'll get the approval." And so if that happens, um I mean the more prepared you are, the easier the easier it is for me, um to say that to them. Uh one of the things y'all were talking about, you got to make the picket line fun. Anything you do with members, it's got to be fun. They have got to be having fun. So whatever way you can make it fun, make it fun. Um redirect that anger from the other workers on the mountain and from the town folk. Why are they mad at us? I'm not a [ __ ] billionaire. The billionaire could stop this right now. And I mean, we're not asking for too much. So, redirect the anger. Um, I've always heard this since I've been in the union movement, like we decide when we want to go out on strike, right? We take the vote, we call the damn strike. We don't get to decide when we go back. That's why all this runup uh is so important. I mean, to break even into a strike would suck that you did all that, but to lose in a strike, think about how bad that would be. And so, uh, the last 4:32:25 thing I want to say is the CWA strike fund technically is called the MRF, the members relief fund. And so, the situation that you heard a little bit about that kind of we kind of buzzed by that. There was a person who was a patroller at Park City and his wife was about to give birth any minute and they they were like, "What's going to happen with my healthcare? What's this? What's that?" I have some leeway in the members relief fund. And I I say this I always feel like I'm taking a risk when I say this because most of you all have heard the story about the ant and the grasshopper. Grasshopper didn't do [ __ ] The ants were busy the whole time. Grasshopper did without. I mean we can't encourage people to be the grasshopper. But I mean a as an organization the big CWA is not going to let you lose your house. They're not going to let you not have health care to pay for that baby. I mean, they may not pay your mortgage on your second or third house or your fourth four-wheeler, but I mean, if you've made a solid effort or you know that we have members out there and there's a real hardship, bring it to me and I'll do what I can to try to help and not have to dig into you all's 4:33:26 money. Thank you all. >> Thanks for that, Gary. Um, can I get a round of applause for our panelists? Thank you guys so much. Um, and before before I send you guys back to back to Jenpa, I don't know. I'm looking broadly, man. I'm just crosseyed. It's fine. Um, uh, would you guys like to add any other reflections? 4:34:02 >> The mic? >> Yes, it does. >> If it comes to it, don't be afraid to go on strike. It really sucks, but it's also really powerful. I think >> that's what he wanted to hear. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I'm glad I did it once. I don't ever want to do it again. So that's Yeah. >> Sweet. Thank you guys. MIGHT 4:34:50 All 4:35:07 right, guys. We're almost there. um you know, we were going to offer uh a collective bargaining um workshop as well as uh Lowry's mental health workshop. And I just want to see a show of hands who's planning on going to collective bargaining. Okay, enough that we're gonna offer it. Sweet. Um, so we have workshops coming up. I'm not going to ask you guys to come back in here for adjournment. And so what I'm going to do right now is go through my kind of like adjournment notes. Okay. So bear with me here. Okay. Um, tonight highside in Fris, not in Breenidge. In Fris. Yeah. So, go to the right, please. 4:36:08 Um, what time, Bobby? >> 6:30. >> Brex key patrol band. Chief complaint will be playing six o'clock. Be there. Um, let's see. We're having tonight or sorry, tomorrow night. Uh, sorry, tonight after party at Travis's house. Bring the toast. Bring your toasters. Tomorrow night, bonfire at Theo's house in Silverthorn. Details to follow. Is some questions here. Is anyone here not on the email thread that was started uh yesterday for all of the attendees? Yeah, that's awesome. Oh, no. Dang it. Okay. Well, we'll get together later. Uh, is anyone here without a place to 4:37:09 stay that is confirmed tonight, tomorrow night? Any of that, dude? We're nailing it. That's awesome. Um, I understand how much we all resent group photos and and the use of the internet and smiling in general and and the attitude of being jovial. But, um, we're we're going to take just so that we don't have to come back here and do it after this workshop. Um, everybody right here right now, we're going to come up to the front of the room and we are going to take a group photo, including you, Zach. 4:38:00 Don't be shy now. Come on. Come on.
