Stringently administered restrictions on alien employees by the federal government have created a mountain of paper work for ski area operators and ski school directors this summer and fall. Attention has been focused on the role of the foreign instructor in the U. S. ski schools and on the role of the ski school within the area itself.
Although the regulations have been on the statutes of the U. S. Immigration and Naturalization Service for years, they apparently had not been carried out to the most minute degree in past seasons, although all foreign instructors had to obtain temporary work visas and other credentials.
Lack of snow brought the situation to a head early last winter when many large resorts found themselves with from a couple to as many as 35 foreign instructors, all on contract and all with no pupils to teach—and hence bringing no money into the resort treasury. In virtually all cases, work related to ski school operations was found for the European and Canadian instructors and they were carried through the season.
But several resorts found it necessary to lay off U. S. instructors during the snow drought. And in many cases, the Americans were not under contract, but paid on a per lesson basis. No snow, no dough! Many U. S. instructors in December found themselves either at unemployment offices or in other fields of endeavor by February.
Vermont, in particular, with several ski schools featuring Austrian instructors (although usually paying at least lip service to the American Technique), found the enforcement of the regulations really stepped up. A variety of reasons were advanced: a new director of the state Immigration Bureau office at St. Albans, various state politicians seeking Vermonters First on all jobs (from apple picking to pari-mutuel clerks at Green Mountain Race Track) and possible complaints from U. S. instructors who were laid off while foreign instructors remained on the payroll.
In essence, the ski school operators were required to advertise for certified U. S. instructors in local and ski publications to see if any native instructors were available. Once the Labor Department officials (from the local office all the way to Washington) were satisfied that no Americans were denied jobs, then the Federal Bureau of Employment Security issued “clearance” certificates and the Immigration and Naturalization Service finally issued visas.
Most operators began their work in June, and Vermont resorts received notification only October 5 that the visas would be issued. By then, many foreign instructors had decided not to wait any longer and had accepted positions in their home country.
At first the ski school directors worked individually on the problem, then the Vermont and other state operators associations compared notes and worked cooperatively, with the National Ski Areas Association office in New York acting as a liaison agency. Meanwhile the Eastern Operators through the NSAA office also operated an Employment Service to locate qualified instructors (and other personnel) for areas.
The combined advertising by the ski schools, the placement assistance of the Professional Ski Instructors of America and the instructors’ certification committees of the Eastern Amateur Ski Association and Walter Foeger’s Natur Teknik established what all ski school directors already knew—THERE IS A SERIOUS SHORTAGE OF HOME-GROWN INSTRUCTORS IN THE UNITED STATES.
Stan Heidenreich, chairman of the Eastern’s professional certification committee said there are some 480 certified teachers in the association and about 200 are either virtually retired or strictly weekend instructors, with another 75 teaching in other sections of the country, leaving approximately 200 available full-time certified Eastern instructors. New York State alone has 105 ski areas.
The NSAA employment service reported some 44 U. S. instructors applied this year for positions, while 138 positions were open.
Foeger, now a naturalized citizen of the U. S., was particularly incensed over the immigration service’s classification of ski instructors as “common laborers.” He pointed out that most Austrian certified instructors have been required to take university level courses and should be regarded at least as professional athletes, if not teachers.
The NSAA too feels that the instructors should be admitted on Form I-129B as H-1 employees or those admitted on the “basis of distinguished merit and ability.”
Operators were urged by the NSAA to write their Congressmen or Senators to bring attention to the serious shortage of instructors and get their classification as H-1 workers.
Certainly the average instructor is no “common laborer,” but at many resorts the European instructors are also social directors and entertainers. Stratton’s ski school, directed by Austrian-born Emo Henrich, is almost as well known for its three-piece band as for its capable instructors and the trio has appeared numerous times on television and at Ski Fairs.
Henrich is quick to point out that Stratton actually has only 12 Austrians on the staff, with up to 48 other full and part time instructors coming from the ranks of U. S. skiers. He also stressed that the immigration service requires that the foreign instructors be properly housed and maintained while in this country and that they cannot be laid off if there is no snow.
“The American instructors are just as good as the Austrians, except that they can’t play and dance the Austrian numbers that our skiers request and most of the Americans have motels or other interests and do not want to spend their evenings as entertainers,” Henrich said.
He recruits top instructors each summer in Austria and finds the hunting harder each year. A top instructor can get the equivalent of the going U. S. rate of $90 a week at the major Austrian resorts, Henrich said, so pay alone is not the incentive. (The foreign skiers actually get less than $90 as their board and room is deducted, but they usually get half of their round-trip ticket paid by the resort.)
Most ski school directors agree that the foreign pros like to come here to see the country, learn better English and for the status it gives them when they return home. Many, however, remain and become U. S. citizens.
Mt. Snow has the largest number of foreign instructors each year, with 35 (including many Canadians) or about half of its staff. Stowe has from 10 to 15 each year, and Killington’s Karl Pfeiffer brings over around 6 each year.
While imported ski instructors were formerly found at only the bigger Northern or Western areas, the intensely competitive machine-made-snow resorts in the “banana belt” are now forced to bring in foreign pros.
“Good, qualified professional instructors are simply not available in sufficient quantity in the U. S. Major resorts cannot run their ski schools without the Canadians or Europeans,” Cal Conniff said. Conniff manages Mt. Tom in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
In previous years Swiss pro Jules Eberhard brought in several fellow countrymen each winter and new ski school director Adi Scheidle, formerly at Stratton, is bringing in five fellow Austrians. They will entertain as well as teach. Conniff feels that the foreign ski teachers have a helpful influence on all phases of ski business. Conniff said there were “absolutely no responses” to his ads for instructors at from $1000 to $1500 per season and he didn’t expect any. Mt. Tom will have two full-time U. S. instructors as well, plus 20 or more part-timers, all from this country.
“We followed the regulations to the last detail and we will treat the Austrians the same as we do the local pros as far as our payroll, tax and accident policies are concerned,” Conniff said.
Mt. Snow’s Harvey Clifford, himself a native Canadian who spent seven summers running a ski school in New Zealand, said that “as long as there are ski schools, most will have some Europeans.”
He also said that the Europeans provide the broader base necessary for a cosmopolitan and experienced ski school and that the U. S. skiers and ski areas still look to Europe as the leader in the ski sport.
“If we provide the European, continental atmosphere which lures Americans abroad here at Mt. Snow, the President’s cash balance program is being helped,” said Clifford, whose school is a traditional big money maker.
Clifford said that the nub of the problem is that any seasonal business or resort cannot expect to get and keep top rate Americans unless they can be paid enough in the season to compensate for the annual break in employment. The American attitude towards teaching and mingling with their customers is also less pleasing than the European’s in some cases, due to the American abhorrence at being considered any sort of a servant, Clifford added.
Virtually all ski school directors agreed that technically, the U. S. certified instructors are at least as capable as their European counterparts. In fact, Foeger feels that the U. S. instructors are often better, as they are usually more idealistic and ski for the love of it, where to many Europeans it is merely the best job available.
According to Killington’s Phil Camp, ski school director Pfeiffer would be happy with all Americans, as there are fewer problems involved. The Austrian teachers, while contributing to the après ski program, still have to be housed and managed and someone must help them with the day-to-day problems. Pfeiffer trains a great number of instructors from scratch each year, but he still needs the basic group of Austrians to keep the school going, particularly when they have 1400 ski-weekers at a time.
Although the labor and immigration department requirements were the cause of considerable “heat” during the summer and fall, new “light” was focused on the ski schools.
From a monetary point of view, some operators question the value of the ski schools, as many smaller schools actually lose money for the area, particularly in a year like last season. The recent trend has been for the operators to take over the management of the ski school, but some operators are willing now to dump the paper work and headaches on the ski school director and let him operate on his own—with a small percentage of the gross being returned to the parent corporation.
Other operators, owning the schools, feel that the programs not only make a considerable amount of easy cash, but contribute to the color and appeal of an area. They say that snow and lifts can always be matched by another resort, but the personality of the ski school staff and its intrinsic appeal can make the difference in bringing in the lift-ticket customers, even if the ski school income is not important.
The status of the U. S. instructors and the instructor organizations was also scrutinized, and many individual instructors felt that they did not have adequate representation.
At the Stratton rally last April, PSIA kingpin Paul Valar of Franconia was quoted as saying that the PSIA was not meant to be a labor union, and that the instructors should regard their work as a profession.
But as Hans Palmer, assistant director of Stratton, said, “As long as some certified instructors have to line up and hope for a class assignment before they get paid, the ski instructor is still a ski bum.”
It is expected that the coming winter will see considerable discussion of wage standards, health and accident insurance and a voice in operations by the instructors, both the U. S. and foreign variety, and that the instructors’ organizations will give considerable study to the problem of meeting the demand and advancing the “profession.”
