Whistler Blackcomb cutting about 60 jobs after U.S. takeover
CEO says company has people doing same jobs at the Vail Resorts’ corporate office in Colorado
The new owner of the Whistler Blackcomb resort is eliminating dozens of jobs.
Vail Resorts says about 60 positions are being cut within the IT, finance, accounting, marketing and sales and communications departments.
In a release, CEO Rob Katz wrote that the company has people doing the same jobs at Vail Resorts' corporate office in Colorado.
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"Whistler Blackcomb [will] protect and continue to support its number one-rated guest experience and the unique and iconic history of the resort and of the community," Katz wrote. "At the end of the day, these decisions were not made lightly or without serious consideration and we do recognize how challenging these types of decisions and changes can be."
Katz wrote that the job cuts would happen at the beginning of May, after the upcoming 2016-2017 ski season.
'You don't go from VP of finance to server'
Mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden says she expected Vail's purchase of Whistler Blackcomb would result in some job cuts, but not this many.
She says most of the positions have some seniority to them and that means those people will have difficulty finding similar work in Whistler.
"It's going to have a negative effect on the economy, and of course on the individuals," she said. "There are lots of front-line hospitality jobs in town right now, no question, but you don't go from VP of finance to server."
For Wilhelm-Morden, the job cuts have a personal dimension: her daughter works in communications for Whistler Blackcomb, and her job is among the 60 being cut.
With files from Bal Brach