Ski Patrollers Go On Strike

Social Justice Policy Brief #170 | By: Reilly Fitzgerald | January 09, 2025
Park City Mountain base area at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday Dec. 29. Photo: Park City Mountain

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Policy Summary

The last week of December and into early January, the holiday season and school vacation weeks, are often some of the busiest days at a ski resort in the United States. Park City Mountain Resort, the United States’ largest ski resort, is no exception. However, on Dec. 27, 2024, over 200 ski patrollers walked off the job in protest of their working conditions at Park City, outside of Salt Lake City, Utah; the resort is owned and managed by Vail Resorts. The Park City Professional Ski Patrollers Association demanded higher wages for their ski patrollers due, largely, to the exorbitant cost of living in Park City. The strike led to tremendously long wait lines for chair lifts, closed terrain, and even nonunion ski patrollers being brought in from other ski resorts. To make a long story short, the strike created a mess that left Park City skiers quite miserable over the holidays. 

Analysis

Park City, Utah, is one of the most premier ski areas in the United States. It boasts a tremendous 350 trails with over 40 lifts to move skiers uphill and access the terrain. Park City Mountain Resort is one of over 40 ski resorts owned by Vail Resorts around the world. Other famous resorts owned by Vail Resorts are: Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia, Canada; Crested Butte in Colorado; Crans-Montana in Switzerland (home to a FIS World Cup alpine ski race); and three ski resorts in Australia (and many others throughout the United States). Vail Resorts, in 2024, did $2.8 billion in net revenue and over $230 million in net income, according to Vail Resorts website. 

Ski patrollers are an important group of people in the ski industry. They are, typically, well-trained emergency medical staff that provide aid to injured or hurt skiers and riders on the slopes; they also perform tasks, in areas like Utah, such as firing howitzers at slopes with potential avalanche risk to reduce the likelihood of an avalanche occurring. The Wasatch Mountains in Utah are well-known for their substantial amounts of snow and Utah is known, in the ski world, as a haven for the powder skier. This is all to say, ski patrollers are among the most important employees at a ski resort. The National Ski Patrol Association says that all ski patrollers have been certified in Outdoor Emergency Care (OEC) as a baseline certification, and also take courses in wilderness first aid, avalanche safety, mountain rescue, and more. 

However, ski patrollers (and many other seasonal employees at ski areas) have had a history of not being paid very well. This long standing pattern of low pay is what, ultimately, led the Park City Professional Ski Patrollers Association to go on strike on Dec. 27, 2024, and 200 ski patrollers walked off the job. 

The union’s largest gripe with the Park City Mountain Resort’s management is regarding pay. The union’s largest complaint being that wages have remained low at the resort for patrollers, and that the cost of living in Park City has increased dramatically – making it very hard for ski patrollers (and other mountain employees) to live in Park City. According to PayScale, the cost of living in Park City, Utah, is 66% higher than the national average; and cost of housing is 268% higher than the national average. Ski patrollers at Park City had been making about $21 per hour to start with the pay scale topping out after five years, according to the Associated Press; the resort also provided ski patrollers with over $1500 for purchasing gear. Vail Resorts says that they increased wages in 2022 from $13 per hour to the rate of $21 per hour. However, negotiators for the mountain wanted to offer a $2 hourly wage increase, while the union says that $27 per hour is the living wage for Park City. 

The strike caused a tremendous amount of chaos at the Park City Mountain Resort. It was well reported that chairlift lines were over an hour long, and lots of terrain was closed down due to the lack of ski patrollers to clear the terrain for potential risks. On January 6th, it was reported that 25 out of the 41 lifts were operational (16 lifts closed), and 103 out of 350 trails were open (147 trails closed); and to make matters worse, the mountain received over two feet of new snow through the past week. To cope with the intense and chaotic conditions at the resort, Park City brought in nonunion ski patrollers from other ski areas. 

It was announced on January 7th that the union and Park City’s management had come to an agreement to end the strike, and details were not revealed until January 9th. According to The Park Record, entry-level patrollers will be receiving a $2/hour raise (moving the starting wage to $23/hour) and more experienced patrollers would be receiving even higher raises (average wage raise across the union membership was $4 per hour); along with an enhancement of their already existing benefits such as parental leave and professional development. Ski patrollers came back to work on January 9th, marking the end of the strike. 

As our country’s financial situation gets more and more expensive amid the rising cost of groceries, costs for housing, rising mortgage rates, and other increasing factors, it will be interesting to see if this strike is a one-off or if more seasonal workers push their employers for wage increases. This will become even more important as many states have exemptions for seasonal workers and their right to earn the federal minimum wage in the United States. 

 

Engagement Resources

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