Before sunrise Monday, hundreds of people bundled up against the 21-degree temperature outside WE Soda’s plant, standing along the road as buses of workers arrived to show support for the roughly 350 employees facing layoffs.
The protest came less than a week after WE Soda announced that it would cut hundreds of at the Sweetwater County trona mine, shrinking its workforce from more than 850 to about 500 as it phases out underground mining in favor of solution mining.
The company has said low-cost soda ash from China had undercut Wyoming producers in export markets, with layoffs set to begin in the first quarter of 2027.
Marshal Cummings, president of United Steelworkers Local 13214, which represents WE Soda’s Sweetwater County workers, told Cowboy State Daily that the union has two basic demands for the company right now.
“No. 1, keep the mine open and slow roll this,” Cummings said. “And No. 2, get to the table so we can see what that looks like.”
‘We Want To Be Seen And Heard’
Cummings estimated that more than 750 people turned out, saying vehicles wrapped around the highway exit and stretched halfway to the plant.
He hopes the rally sent a message to the company about the hundreds of familiesimpacted by one sweeping decision.
“We just want to be seen and heard,” Cummings said. “What I hope this did was put faces to numbers and names to numbers, not just numbers on a spreadsheet.”
Cummings said the union has met with WE Soda once since the announcement, and that the company has so far offered to bargain only the effects of the layoffs, not the decision to move to solution mining.
He said the company also has not said which jobs will go and which will stay.
“You just showed up to the table and said you’re closing the mine,” Cummings said. “You didn’t show us if you’re actually losing money. You didn’t show us how much money you are losing if it is.”
WE Soda is the world’s largest producer of natural soda ash, which is made from trona mined in southwest Wyoming.
Cummings said the impact reaches well beyond Sweetwater County to the whole country.
Chinese producers have been selling low-cost soda ash into export markets, and he warns that if Wyoming’s production shrinks, the U.S. could end up depending on China for a mineral that shows up in nearly every aspect of daily life.
“Soda ash and trona is in the windshield that you sat behind, in the toothpaste you brushed your teeth with this morning, the laundry detergent that you wash your clothes with last night,” Cummings said.
“What happens when all these doors are closed and you’re buying everything from China?” he asked.
Cummings said U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, had agreed to meet with the union, though a date had not been set.
He said the union also hopes to work with U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, who was elected to the U.S. Senate last week, and Secretary of State Chuck Gray, who was elected to Wyoming’s U.S. House seat.
“It’s time to go to bat for the people that elected you,” Cummings said.
‘What It Does To Their Employees’
Cummings said the mood at the demonstration was somber, and that the days since the announcement had felt like a funeral.
Many of those showing support for the workers were children, and many held signs.
“I don’t know what a ‘layoff’ is … I just know my Daddy is sad,” read one of the signs, held by a young girl in a pink knit cap, according to photos posted by Utah-based ABC4.
“You don’t know the man you hurt, but I do,” read another. “He’s my daddy!"
Incoming Green River Mayor Stan Blake, who attended the rally, told Cowboy State Daily that it was a show of solidarity, coordinated so workers riding buses to the plant Monday morning would see the crowd waiting for them.
“When the busses started to come, everybody stood up on the road,” Blake said. “From newborn babies wrapped up, and kids and their parents and supporters of all these miners.”
As a former union member himself, Blake said he wanted to stand with the workers because he knows the position they are in.
“Corporations are always trying to cut their workforce to make more money,” Blake said. “I get that, but the companies don’t get what it does to their employees, many of them (with) lots of years of their lives out there.”
Blake, who works for the railroad and said he used to haul soda ash out of the mines, pointed to another pressure on the industry.
He said the mines have no practical way to move their product other than by rail, which leaves them dependent on Union Pacific.
“Union Pacific, during my tenure, has always raised the rate, raised the rate, raised the rate,” Blake said. “Because they know they have a captive shipper.”
Blake said he hopes state and federal leaders will step in, noting that Gov. Mark Gordon and Gov.-elect Eric Barlow are aware of the layoffs.
He also pointed to the help other energy industries have received when they ran into trouble.
“The federal government always seems to bail out the coal companies whenever something like that happens, or the oil and gas industry,” Blake said. “They get all kinds of breaks.”
Emma Jane Jackson can be reached at emma@cowboystatedaily.com.
