On December 27, 2024, ski patrollers at the Park City Mountain Resort — the largest ski resort in the United States — walked off the job. Ski patrolling is a high-skill job, with patrollers responsible for guest safety on the slopes. It is also incredibly low paid, especially when compared to the exploding cost of living in resort towns. Before the strike, first-year ski patrollers at Park City made $21 per hour, while experienced patrollers earned little more. The average home price in Park City approaches $2 million.

After nearly two weeks on strike, the patrollers, represented by the Park City Ski Patrol Association, a unit of CWA 7781 United Mountain Workers, reached a tentative agreement, approving it unanimously. The strike made waves throughout the winter-sports community. It was a strike not just against Park City but also its parent company, Vail, which has a $6 billion market cap, owns forty-two resorts around the world, and has upended the ski industry over the past three decades.

Jacobin contributors Oren Schweitzer and Elliot Benjamin sat down with Emmet Murray, an eight-year ski patroller at Park City and a vice president of the Park City Ski Patroller Association, to discuss life and work on the slopes, organizing in a right-to-work state, and the growing union movement of ski resort workers, of which the Park City patrollers are just the tip of the mountain. The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.