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MMSA confirms year-round employee layoffs |
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Friday, 30 January 2009 |
“We have begun to lay off more deeply now, including some year round employees,” said Mammoth Mountain Human Resources Director Jack Copeland.
Mammoth Mountain Ski Area recently had to adjust its projected skier visitation number for 2008-2009 from 1.43 million to 1.06 million, a reduction of 26 percent.
As of last week, 10 senior managers took a five percent pay cut and the guest service departments (ski school, rentals, food service, etc) have been adjusting employee hours based on daily business.
Many of these departments share the burden by distributing hours between employees to reduce the impact and maintain staffing levels for the weekends and upcoming holidays.
You can only reduce seasonal hours across the board so much, Copeland noted. “You can’t really cut somebody who’s got kids and a mortgage to three days a week.”
You have to decide who’s going to Holiday status and who’s going to keep working, said Copeland.
But the reduced projected skier visitation number has necessitated more drastic action.
“We can’t make the expense savings entirely with seasonal employees... we have to run the ski resort.”
To maintain a minimum level of service and operations on the Mountain, roughly 30 year-round employees will be laid-off.
From a national perspective, and in this recessionary period, Copeland felt that the Mountain was lucky to have the business it does. Across the country, the struggling economy has not boded well for the ski business and the resort business, in general.
For the time being, the Mountain is not considering the early closing of June Mountain. Mammoth Mountain CEO Rusty Gregory has publicly stated that as long as June Mountain can cover its own cost of operation, it will stay open.
“We hope that the actions that we take today, that are very painful and very difficult for everyone... that this will be enough to get us through this season and through this year,” said Copeland.
“We’re a better company than this, we’re a better community than this, we’re just caught in a horrible economy.”
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 05 February 2009 )
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