Punching In: Changing of the Guard, New Data on Apprenticeships

Monday morning musings for workplace watchers.

A New Administration| Ski Patrol Fight Backlash Continues

Rebecca Rainey: Later today, President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn in as 47th president of the United States.

At noon, US Department of Labor leaders and political appointees will badge out for the last time. Watchers of the labor and employment sector expect a dramatic shift in enforcement posture at the DOL, and a flurry of regulatory actions to undo many of the standards issued by the outgoing administration, including rules on independent contractor status and overtime protections.

Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su said in one of her last interviews as the head of the agency that the DOL’s policy work offered a roadmap that was “better for business,” in part because the expanded protections offered under their regulatory efforts helped companies retain employees long-term.

More from that interview here.

Job training: Workers can earn more money going to trade school than working a minimum wage job in most states, new research commissioned by the DOL found, with pay averaging $18 an hour for participants in registered apprenticeship programs.

That average goes up to $32 an hour once apprentices graduate from their program, according to the analysis, which was shared first with Bloomberg Law. Trainees who don’t complete the full registered apprenticeship still reap some of the benefits the come with the skills program, with their average starting wage rising to $20 an hour.

The analysis of Employment and Training Administration data from 2019 to 2022 was conducted by Economist Frank Manzo IV of the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and Professor Robert Bruno of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The data lands as the incoming Trump administration is expected to take a different approach to the registered apprenticeship system than Biden, the latter of which strongly encouraged the expansion of the registered apprenticeship system through federal tax incentives and grant opportunities.

Trump, as well as his nominee for labor secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, have both vocally supported job training programs as an alternative to a college education. But it’s unclear whether that policy goal will be effectuated through the DOL’s registered apprenticeship system. Businesses have complained the program has too many requirements and shouldn’t be the only pathway for workers to find training.

During Trump 1.0, the DOL issued a rule to create an Industry Recognized Apprenticeship Program—or IRAP—which allowed companies to implement their own official registered apprenticeships that could be monitored by third parties. The idea was that companies would be able to more quickly stand up and expand job training in under-represented fields not addressed by the registered apprenticeship system.

But unions and organized labor were concerned that it would undermine the quality of the registered apprenticeship system. While the Biden DOL canceled the rule, some expect it may make a return in Trump 2.0.

Researchers Manzo and Bruno caution that the wage outcomes they identified in their analysis would likely be different under the IRAP or an expansion of non-registered apprenticeship programs.

Removing the standards typically attached to registered apprenticeships, like requiring that the training is paid, by offering alternative programs “really puts at risk the pieces that really are producing this positive outcome,” Bruno said in an interview.

Julie Su, acting US secretary of labor, speaks during an event in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 31, 2023.

Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Parker Purifoy: Vail Resorts faces growing blowback from the ski patrollers’ strike that ground operations at Utah’s Park City Mountain to a crawl over the holiday season.

Christopher Basaillon from Illinois filed a class-action lawsuit last week, claiming that his $15,000 family vacation at Park City was ruined and that the resort company had “intentionally and willfully deceived hundreds of thousands of consumers” by failing to inform them of the labor unrest.

About 200 unionized ski patrol workers, represented by the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association, walked off on strike Dec. 16 after 10 months of negotiations, when management refused their demands of a $2 per hour wage bump from $21 to $23 per hour.

The standoff went viral online when visitors began posting videos of the pile-ups at ski lifts, and the company’s shares tumbled nearly 6.6% following New Year’s Day. Securities litigation firm Pomerantz LLP announced Jan. 14 that it was investigating claims on behalf of investors that Vail’s actions constituted a breach of fiduciary duty or violated securities laws.

Basaillon’s complaint states that his family faced three-hour long waits at the ski lifts, and that only 16% of the resort’s runs were open during his vacation.

“Because Vail Resorts failed to disclose the strike and resultant conditions on Park City’s operations, what was expected to be a dream vacation for thousands of families, at the expense of tens of thousands of dollars per family, quickly turned into a colossal nightmare,” the complaint said.

Vail ultimately agreed to many of the ski patrollers’ demands, boosting the starting wage to $23 per hour and giving seasoned staffers increases of $7.75 per hour, along with increased parental leave and a $1,600 gear allowance. The workers returned to the slopes Jan. 8.

Park City’s Chief Operating Officer Deirdra Walsh apologized to guests in a Jan. 15 letter and said the company would provide them with 50% credit for every day they were impacted by the strike.

“We are committed to rebuilding the trust and loyalty of our guests by delivering an exceptional experience at Park City Mountain this season and in the future,” Walsh said.

According to Park City’s website, 90% of lifts and 66% of runs are open as of Monday.

We’re punching out. Daily Labor Report subscribers please check in for updates during the week, and feel free to reach out to us.