SWEETWATER COUNTY — “That’s not working in good faith, that’s not having your workers back, that’s stabbing them in the back,” United Steelworkers Local 13214 President Marshal Cummings said at a labor demonstration outside of WE Soda early Monday morning. 

Cummings said WE Soda broke earlier assurances that it would keep its underground operation open for years. Cummings said when WE Soda bought the operation from Genesis Alkali; WE Soda officials gave presentations and models showing the underground mine continuing for decades. 

“They told us that they had a decade-long plan to leave the underground open. We all knew they wanted to do solution mining, but they didn’t say they were gonna do it on the drop of the hat,” Cummings said through a megaphone to a crowd. “300 families are going to be wrecked, but that’s what they did.”

After WE Soda asked the workers for help with permitting and navigating the legislature, Cummings said he was naive in thinking that everyone does it the “Wyoming way.”

Cummings pointed to WE Soda’s sign at the Westvaco Road turnout that reads, “We Are Wyoming.” He said the sign should “say bull****” instead.

“That sign should say, ‘We came, we conquered, and we left,’” Cummings added. 

Cummings said WE Soda planned to sell soda ash at the lowest price it can, which he said other mines cannot match. 

“They would tell us that they’re going to sell at a dollar profit, if they can land it for a dollar that’s what they’re going to do,” Cummings said. “Because they know these other mines can’t compete with the pricing with the ELDM and the Granger project.” 

Cummings said WE Soda pushed a message about dominating the trona industry didn’t sit well with him. 

“Like I don’t know why they thought that was gonna be a home-run comment with us, but they’re our neighbors,” he said. “My best friend, people in my wedding work at that mine, my dad retired from that mine, the president of the next local over is here showing his solidarity with us.” 

He said that they are never going to be ok with losing mining jobs, surface or underground.

“We want to keep working here,” he said.

Cummings said WE Soda isn’t offering any compensation packages for laid-off workers so far. He said he received some information late Sunday night that WE Soda is willing to talk about how to make the separation “less burdensome”. He said they are just talks for now and cannot share a lot of information but said, “what I saw isn’t going to move the needle.” 

Community and Legislative Support 

Cummings said he was proud of the support people have shown and wasn’t surprised at the number of people that showed up. 

“Anytime there’s someone in need in the community, I know who goes to bat for them, and they do too,” he said. “We come through for them, they’d come through for us and it’s because we’re neighbors. We actually care about each other.”

I don’t know how they do it in Turkey or London, but it must be a little different than how we do it in Wyoming

Marshal Cummings

Cummings said another demonstration isn’t planned right now but they have debated doing a gathering at the Sweetwater Events Complex where they can invite Wyoming legislators for discussions. 

“Hageman, Barrasso, Lummis, Chuck and all the people represent us in D.C.,” he said. “Local politicians too, I’ve seen a bunch here and I can’t tell you how much that means to me because I hope they’re taking it back to Cheyenne, and I think they are.”

At Saturday’s Cowboys Against Cancer fundraiser, Cummings said he spoke with Sen. John Barrasso. Barrasso spoke about China’s synthetic soda ash production and how expensive it is to transport by rail. Cummings said a rail rate reduction could help keep some jobs. 

“This is a plea to President Trump all the way to the top, fast track this,” Cummings pleaded.

Cummings also asked for a moment of silence for a union member that lost his son to suicide Sunday night.

“If you do feel helpless, or if you do feel like there’s nowhere else to turn, there’s other options than hurting yourself or someone else,” he said. “So when you go home, make sure that you’re talking to your families. Make sure that they know that this is just a rough patch, it’s just one step along the way.”