Mt. Bachelor Lift Mechanics Push to Unionize

Erik Anderson was deployed as an aircraft electrician in the Iraq War and has piloted undersea robots to fix deepwater oil drills. But his current job might be the most dangerous yet, he said. As a chairlift mechanic at Mt. Bachelor, Anderson is part of a crew that scales icy towers in whipping winds to work on sensors and equipment high above the ground, keeping lifts spinning for thousands of skiers and snowboarders. Better working conditions, wages and benefits are all reasons why the mechanics who keep the lifts spinning at Mt. Bachelor are pushing to unionize. “People look at a ski resort and they think of a large playground, a place to spend a day or a weekend having a lot of fun,” Anderson told the Source. “What a lot of folks don’t know is it takes an amazing amount of sweat and guts to get the thing started in the morning.” Nearly all of Mt.

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