A posh ski town loved by A-list celebrities has been torn apart after a billionaire resort owner closed up shop.
Telluride, Colorado is adored by stars including Jennifer Aniston, Oprah Winfrey and Tom Cruise.
It has a population of just 2,500 but it swells during peak snow season as 160,000 visitors a year descending on the slopes.
Billionaire Chuck Horning, 81, owns the Telluride Ski & Golf Club – otherwise known as Telski – at the center of a dispute that has rocked the area.
The resort’s ski patrollers went on strike on December 27, causing Horning’s business to temporarily shut down. Horning has since reopened one lift this week, according to The Denver Post.
However tourism has plummeted and local businesses are feeling the devastating effects during what is usually their busiest time of the year.
Furious locals took to the streets on Wednesday, demanding the union and the ski resort to end their stalemate.
‘Pow to the people,’ they chanted.
Telluride is a small town of 2,500, but it welcomes in more than 160,000 visitors a year, many who are hitting the slopes at Telluride Ski & Golf Club
However, the ski resort was temporarily shutdown and currently only has one lift working after ski patrollers went on strike in late December, demanding better pay
‘A strike is an extraordinary measure,’ resident Anne Wilson said in a video posted to X.
‘From where many of us are standing, this dispute does not feel like an extraordinary circumstance that warrants this amount of damage to so many people.’
Although she advocates for the ski patrollers, who are after better pay, she said the ‘pressure is [not] landing where it’s intended.’
‘Telski can and will afford to wait this out for far longer than the Telluride community can,’ she said.
Businessowners are being forced to lay off workers already and pinch pennies even more as they desperately hope the Ski Patrol Union comes to an agreement with Telski so wealthy and famous tourists come back.
‘Economic disaster is already unfolding in front of our eyes,’ brewery owner Tommy Thacher told The Denver Post.
‘If it goes on, it’s going to be catastrophic to the local [and] regional economy.’
Thacher, alone, has seen his customer base drop 40 percent at his brewery that sits at the base of the ski area. He’s worried he may have to temporarily close it, he told the outlet.
Oprah Winfrey is among the many celebrities that have enjoyed the slopes in Telluride
Jennifer Aniston and her ex-husband Justin Theroux snapped a photo on the Telluride slopes in 2016
Kelly Ripa and her husband have also visited Telluride for some skiing
Tamas Paluska, who worked for a ski concierge company, said his job was immediately impacted by the resort closure.
‘The timing couldn’t have been any worse, absolutely any worse,’ he told The Post. ‘It was devastating… Nobody has any funds for rainy days.
‘We’re all coming out of the off-season and the off-season is a lean time and, depending what sector you’re in, you’re just trying to pinch pennies knowing that you’re going to have that December holiday revenue coming in.’
The ski contract expired at the end of August. In early December, the resort offered an immediate 13 percent wage increase and a guaranteed cost-of-living increase of five percent for the next two seasons, the resort said.
This would start a trainee out at $24.06, while station leads would get just under $40.
The Ski Patrol Union rejected the offer, as they wanted the lower end of the pay scale to be around $30 an hour.
Patrollers also took to the streets in December to demand livable wages from the resort that just as heavily relies on them.
Ski patroller Hunt Worth, who has worked with Telski for 41 years, was among the protesters.
‘A strike is an extraordinary measure,’ resident Anne Wilson said in a video posted to X. ‘From where many of us are standing, this dispute does not feel like an extraordinary circumstance that warrants this amount of damage to so many people’
Many local businesses are laying off workers and lowing money quickly from the lack of tourist. For many, this is the busiest time of year and where they get most of their income
He told Headwater News that he was out on the streets to demand better pay, and that they started the union a decade ago to keep people for longer than a few years by offering them a sustainable career.
‘One of the issues is that it’s very, very expensive to live in ski areas, and Telluride is right at the top of that list as far as expensive,’ he told the outlet.
He said many of his colleagues are commuting an hour into work to live in cheaper areas, and it’s nearly impossible for them to get to work during bad weather.
‘All we’re asking for is fair wages so that we can afford to keep doing this job,’ he told the outlet.
Fellow patroller, Tom Sakalowski, who has lived in Telluride for 54 years, said in December the resort was refusing to negotiate.
‘We went back to them and gave up a bunch of stuff. We thought we were bargaining and they’re not coming back with anything. So, we had no choice [but to strike].’
Telski told the Daily Mail they have presented the union a new offer, which they vote on today.
