Citing alleged tensions with management, perpetual turnover, safety concerns and unpredictable schedules, hourly employees at a Laramie cement plant voted to organize Wednesday.
Nearly 80 workers at the Mountain Cement Company plant will join the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers after a 40-26 vote and years of indecision about organizing amid a staunchly anti-union cultural and political environment in Wyoming. Only 5.6% of wage and salary employees in Wyoming last year were union members, down from a high of 13.4% in 1990, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The 2024 rate was well below the national average of 9.9%.
Persistent demands to work unscheduled overtime and alleged intimidation by management pushed workers to seek union protections, some employees told WyoFile.
“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?'”
For nearly a century, the cement plant has been considered a blue-collar staple of the college town’s economy, and a place where workers could earn a comfortable living without an advanced degree. But sentiments among employees began to change over the past decade as management seemed to incrementally adopt a “corporate” attitude toward workers, said Robert Hodges, a former lead electrician and automation technician at the plant.
“The younger guys that come out as laborers, they have bad working conditions,” Hodges said. “They’re treated like garbage, and the turnover is tremendous. I can’t think of one laborer that’s been out there for longer than, like, two years.
“In our community,” Hodges continued, “you can go talk to anybody on the street and find somebody who has worked out there, been fired from out there, somebody who is a disgruntled, former employee.”
Hodges worked at the plant for 13 years before being fired in June. He alleges it was for his role in trying to organize a union vote. He’s asking the National Labor Relations Board to hear his case.
“Now that we are unionized out there, I would be willing to return — absolutely,” Hodges said.
WyoFile’s inquiries to Mountain Cement Company and its parent company, Eagle Materials, were not returned by press time.
Driven to organize
The cement plant taps multiple quarries in the region that supply rock and aggregate. The material is crushed and then baked inside long boilers heated by coal. The slurry is processed into high-quality “portland” cement, according to the company. Cement is in high-demand for things like road construction and buildings, and wind turbine developers in the region use the product to build solid bases for wind towers.
“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.”
Marcie Kindred, Wyoming AFL-CIO
The nature of the operation — high temperatures, heavy equipment, moving parts and dusty operations that require continual maintenance — demands special attention to safety, according to workers.
“They [management] preach safety 24/7,” Hodges said. “You know, ‘That’s the most important thing,’ until it affects production. Then, all of the sudden, it’s like, ‘Nope. Now we have to get it done no matter what it takes.’”
Frequently, an employee will point out a piece of equipment that’s about to fail, Hodges said. But the fix is put off until it actually breaks down, usually requiring workers to come in during their time off. “Seems like it’s always at 2 a.m. on a Saturday,” he quipped. Management seems to routinely spring unscheduled maintenance tasks, “always on a Friday afternoon,” he added.
Hodges grew up in an anti-union family who worked in the trona patch in southwest Wyoming. For most of his adulthood, he thought he was anti-union, he said, or didn’t think about it much. That was the prevailing attitude at the plant for a long time, but working conditions and relations with management seemed to continually decline, making workers desperate, he explained.
There’s been talk about organizing at the plant for years, Hodges said, and workers gradually began to warm up to the idea. He also attributes this week’s vote to unionize to a growing number of younger workers who “aren’t so set in their ways,” he said.
Wyoming AFL-CIO Executive Director Marcie Kindred, who helped advise the cement plant workers, along with the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, said she was worried sick for the workers ahead of the vote. She alleged the company used typical anti-union tactics in recent months, like mandatory meetings to learn about the pitfalls of working in a union.
In general, management can be particularly retaliatory towards employees after a failed vote to organize, she said. “It can be really just devastating.”
She was on an adrenaline high, though, after she learned about the successful vote.
“This means so much to Wyoming workers who feel voiceless, like there’s nowhere to turn,” Kindred said. “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.”
Hicks said his teenage son frequently begged him to quit working at the plant, because he’d continually get called into work when he was scheduled to be off duty. “There was just no work/life balance,” he said.
The mood among workers was exuberant after Wednesday’s vote, which was tallied in the evening. Hicks said a co-worker sent him a text: “I’ve never been ready to go into work at MCC [Mountain Cement Company] except for tomorrow.”
“This is the first time I’ve seen everybody come together,” Hicks said. “I’ve never seen more hugs and high fives and handshakes and just smiling faces. It was awesome, like the birth of a child, you know. The whole family is just excited that it happened.”
That’s very good to see the concrete workers made a good move for their selves and ultimately for the company. I have worked here in Cheyenne my whole career with the right to work law which I call the right to screw the worker law. I am retired now what happened was The companies that sell floor coverings now can’t find any installers. The union will train journeyman and have apprentice and this is very important for a business. I wish I would’ve been in a union. I would’ve been getting a pension when you retire that’s very important. I was surprised to hear it, and I am glad to hear it. Good move for you folks.
Congratulations to the brave and determined workers and AFL organizers of International Brotherhood of Boilermakers- AFL-CIO. In the 1960s I worked summers at Monolith Portland Midwest, and later in Tehachapi CA at the parent plant, itself originally created to compound the portland cement that was used to build the part of the L. A. aqueduct. Of the history of lawsuits, finances, and finagling, that culminated in birthing Mountain Cement Company and Eagle Materials I am unaware, but profoundly thankful that I survived the nightmare experiences at Monolith to complete degrees at U. W. Joe Hill still enlivens the dreams of workers, struggling for a CONTRACT–dignity, a living wage, sick days, a pension plan!
“You can’t scare me, I’m stickin’ to the union…” (from Union Maid by Woody Guthrie)
Good union jobs used to make the American middle class. Unions work well when corruption is well policed, prosecuted, and punished (like every other aspect of society). Without teacher’s unions, most teachers would not have a living wage, much less a retirement fund.
Teachers’ unions reinforce my view on unions breeding mediocrity and high prices. In this case the mediocrity on steroids is the woke teachers of the last decade, and the high prices are the poorly educated students. I went to public school in the 60’s and early 70’s and the number of really good teachers I could count on one hand. Most were average and unremarkable that I don’t remember them. Then there were the numerous truly bad teachers that had no business being in a classroom.
Get rid of teachers unions and tenure, and let the best and brightest teach. The duds can find something else to earn a buck.
The good, inspiring, thought provoking teachers are still around. You, admittedly, haven’t been in a classroom since the 70’s. You don’t have a clue about today’s teachers and classrooms. You just repeat talking points that you slurp up. Instead of pining away for “the good old days”, you should listen to the opinion of those teachers that have been doing the job in this century. Your 70’s education is outdated and your opinions reflect it.
Remember that there are NO teachers’ unions in Wyoming. Teachers have a professional organization (the WEA) just as attorneys have (WBA).
If we have poor or mediocre teachers in our schools, it’s because their administrators are not doing their jobs. Failing teachers must be put on a plan of remediation and monitored for success in (or failure in) fulfilling that plan. It’s not rocket science.
Unions breed mediocrity and high prices. I’m so glad I worked in the engineering business where merit was prioritized over seniority.
My father was forced to be a member of the ‘International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers’ as a condition to working his blue collar ramp job for United Airlines. He hated it when they went on strike because he knew the longer they were on the picket line that they would never recover their lost wages from the resulting pay raises.
Hopefully union membership will help solve some of the problems at the plant. I congratulate the employees that voted to unionize. As a past union member, I can attest to the fact that representation as well as a united front can improve working conditions. Companies that truly care for their employees usually do not end up unionized.
The newly minted union employees will need to remind themselves that their benefits will also benefit the 26 that did not vote to unionize because of Wyoming’s right to work laws. Those 26 will not be required to pay union dues but they will still be entitled to all benefits accorded to those that do. Hopefully, as those benefits become more apparent, they will come around to support their union brothers and sisters. Encourage them to join the new union but do not alienate those 26 because you still need to all work together to make it all work.
Good Luck and welcome to a new positive outlook at work.
Congratulations Mountain Cement Company Boilermakers!
Most of my life I worked a variety of jobs in red states. It was always a relative thing; construction or maintenance was better than the minimum wage service industry. Moving from state one construction to state two coal mining paid three times the wages + medical and pension. As a Union Machinist at Boeing I was paid twice the coal mine wages with comparable benefits and better working conditions. There are times, despite what some politicians and company owners contend when a Union is needed and, as in my case, is a very good fit. Again, Congratulations Mountain Cement Company Boilermakers!
Good luck to you folks. I hope there is more of this. Red state politics will beat you down.
This is an incredible and brave step by the workers at Mountain Cement. Unionizing in a right-to-work state like Wyoming takes immense courage, and it sends a powerful message that a safe and fair workplace is worth fighting for. Congratulations to the new union members!
This is great to see!! And we have long needed more of this in this state!
this is good to see happening. hopefully others will follow suit.