Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Agreement reached at Mont Tremblant

Strike ends after 17 days

Operations went back to normal at Mont Tremblant Thursday after a majority of unionized employees accepted the recommendations made by a provincial labour negotiator on Jan. 4.

Previous to the settlement the unionized employees had rejected a 16 per cent wage increase over five years proposed by Intrawest. They were asking for 15 per cent over three years, along with a pension plan, improvements to sick pay and vacation pay, and job guarantees.

Tremblant remained open during the Christmas holidays, but with reduced capacity. A staff of 200 resort managers managed to open 37 of 94 trails and keep two lifts running, as well as most Intrawest stores, restaurants and hotels in the village.

It is estimated that the strike could have cost the resort a $1 million a day, as skier numbers dropped from an average of 12,000 a day to around 5,000. The exact loss is not being reported by Intrawest.

Employees walked off the job at midnight Dec. 16.

Only 800 of 1,500 striking employees voted on the negotiated deal, deciding by a 71 per cent margin to accept the recommendations of a negotiator appointed by the provincial government.

The deal reportedly involves a five year contract with employees getting three per cent a year for the first four years and four per cent in the final year for a total pay raise of 16 per cent – almost the same contract that employees rejected by a 61 per cent margin on Dec. 22, but with the additional concession of a pension plan.

Before the strike average wages in the resort were reported to be $13.90/hour, making Mont Tremblant employees the best paid ski resort workers in North America. After five years the employees will be making approximately $16.12/hour.