Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.
Workers at the Mountain Cement Company plant in Laramie, Wyoming, have voted to join the Boilermakers (IBB), and the local labor movement is celebrating this victory in a “right to work” state.
While the facility has been considered a cornerstone of the town’s economy for almost a century, workers have remarked that over the past decade management’s attitude toward their essential contributions has gotten worse. The newly minted IBB members cite high rates of turnover, safety concerns, unscheduled overtime and alleged intimidation from management as core motivations for organizing their workplace.
“Just to talk about [the successful vote to organize] makes me teary eyed,” said Alex Hicks, who works in maintenance as a mechanic and welder. “I was threatened with my job, so now that this is here, I feel like it’s a big weight off my shoulders. Now I don’t have to worry about looking over my shoulder everyday wondering, ‘Is this going to be my day or not?’”
“This means so much to Wyoming workers who feel voiceless, like there’s nowhere to turn,” added Marcie Kindred, executive director of the Wyoming State AFL-CIO. “We’re the reddest right-to-work state in the nation, and they just proved that, even in Wyoming, you can fight and freaking win.”