Local workers lead rally in Cheyenne

Workers from Sweetwater County and across Wyoming gathered on the steps of the State Capitol last Friday to make their voices heard.

"Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, workers of all trades, today I stand before you to talk about something that affects every single one of us -- our safety, our rights, and our ability to work with dignity," Marshal Cummings said in a speech at the event.

Cummings, the union president for United Steelworkers Local 13214, helped organize the rally to share his concerns about decisions being made at the state and national level that affect workers. Some of the primary concerns behind the rally were regarding bills in the Wyoming Legislature to cut unemployment, bills affecting education and teachers, and national challenges to organizations like MSHA (Mine Safety and Health Administration) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Cummings worked with Marcie Kindred, newly appointed Executive Director of the Wyoming State AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, a federation of unions), to organize the rally. He invited local teacher Dan Parson to give a speech at the event as well to discuss the impacts of recent legislation on educators.

With participants traveling from across the state to take part, the Wyoming Workers Rally drew roughly 150 participants, Cummings estimated. He believes the event could have been even bigger if it hadn't been on a Friday, but they wanted to gather while the legislature was in session and discussing relevant bills. As it was, many people took the day off and drove for hours to be able to participate.

"That's how important it was," Cummings noted.

The rally participants gathered in front of the Capitol, gave speeches addressing their concerns, and went into the building to hear the House discuss Senate File 0175, "Unemployment insurance coverage-period and reporting." The bill, sponsored by Senator John Kolb, proposed changing the maximum amount of benefits payable from not exceeding 26 times his weekly benefit to not exceeding 20 times his weekly benefit, decreasing the amount of unemployment workers can receive.

This bill had been one of the specific concerns that prompted Cummings to organize the rally, particularly since he both has members he represents currently going through a layoff and since he knows what it's like, having been laid off himself in the past.

"It's not like people are lazy or it's not like they're living off of unemployment, because you can't," Cummings said. "It's so little money from what you're used to making that it won't make you whole."

Cummings also noted that he recently did research and found out that unemployment is overfunded by over $22 million right now.

"It seems like we should expand on the benefit instead of making it worse," he said.

With the rallying workers watching the House session, SF0175 was voted down, failing 23-36.

"As we marched in the gala and the bill got shot down, it made me realize that we can make a difference," Cummings said. "It's people first, people over profit."

Other concerns that prompted Cummings to organize the rally and that are still ongoing relate to changes at a national level that have the potential to impact local workers. Specifically, Cummings said he recently found out that President Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) "intends to cut the field office for MSHA in Green River."

With six mines and thousands of miners in Southwest Wyoming alone, Cummings is concerned over safety, especially if there were ever to be an accident.

"That MSHA office being here in Green River makes it so they can respond quickly," Cummings said.

The need to protect MSHA and OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) is a "no brainer" for Cummings.

"Safety and health-wise, OSHA and MSHA are there for us, and they both were implemented because of disasters and catastrophes that have happened in workplaces," Cummings noted. "They set these regulations, and they do these inspections, and they make the rules so that we are safe and we can come home." 

The damage that can be done when workers aren't protected, both by safety organizations and having rights and the ability to unionize and bargain for better conditions, has been seen in the past, according to Cummings. In his speech, he referenced the Ludlow Massacre of 1914, when striking coal miners and their families in Colorado were killed.

"We've already been down this path," Cummings said. "There's countless incidents where this has happened, and I'm not ready to go back in time. I'm ready to keep going forward."

Cummings also stressed that he believed protecting workers should be a non-partisan issue. Both Republicans and Democrats participated in the Wyoming Workers Rally, he noted, and he believes that the issue goes beyond party lines.

"I still don't see how we fell into this trap where supporting workers is a matter of your political position," he said.

"This isn't about politics-it's about people," Marcie Kindred from the AFL-CIO said of the rally. "The solidarity we're seeing across all professions and industries goes beyond political parties. This is Wyoming at its best-united in our shared values and the knowledge that we are stronger together."

Working hard is the Wyoming way, according to Cummings, and protecting workers benefits everyone.

"I hope everyone in Southwest Wyoming understands that when the unions negotiate and bargain better contracts for themselves, such as wages, benefits, retirement, time off, all this stuff lifts the whole entire community up," Cummings said. "We have more money to spend. Other people have to get competitive with the wages to fulfill the workforce. So if unions are pushing and making strikes, everyone is winning in Southwest Wyoming."

Cummings also shared his belief that Southwest Wyoming has been a driver of worker rights, not just for miners but for everyone.

"We're trying to take up that mantle and keep going in the right direction," Cummings said.