Eldora Ski Patrol joins push to unionize Colorado ski resorts

NEDERLAND, Colo. — On Eldora’s snow-covered slopes, in the mountains west of Boulder, patrollers know what it takes to keep skiers and snowboarders safe. Now, they’re learning what it takes to unionize.

Eldora’s Ski Patrol team is the latest to join Colorado’s growing movement to give resort workers more say over their pay and working conditions.

“It is just really exciting to carve out our own tiny, little slice of the labor movement in America this year,” said Nick Lansing, an Eldora ski patroller helping lead the union efforts.

Over the last couple of years, the number of Colorado ski resort workers in a union has almost doubled. Seven resorts across the state — Aspen-Snowmass, Breckenridge, Crested Butte, Loveland, Purgatory, Steamboat Springs and Telluride — are already unionized, mostly through the United Professional Ski Patrols of America union.

As Eldora’s patrollers push to join them, Lansing said he and his coworkers hope to dispel “ski bum” stereotypes holding them back.

“When people think of ski patrollers, they think of people who get to ski the powder first and are maybe avoiding a real career,” Lansing said. “But in reality, we are medical professionals who care a lot about our jobs.”

Read the rest of this article and watch the accompanying video on Denver7.com