CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Despite low temperatures and repeated blizzard warnings in Wyoming, more than 20 people showed up in front of the Capitol on Tuesday to show support for local rail workers.
The 2022 Rail Solidarity Rally took place from noon to 12:30 p.m. and was organized by Wyoming’s Sheet Metal Air Rail and Transportation Workers, also known as SMART, and the state’s division for the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.
Similar rallies were held across the nation by SMART, including in Washington, D.C. as well as Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada and Utah.
Rail workers are pressuring state and national lawmakers to pass measures that would improve their quality of life, including allowing paid sick leave.
The rallies come nearly two weeks after rail worker unions and the railroads were required to accept a labor deal from the White House that omitted the leave but included an immediate 14.1% wage increase, a 24% increase by 2024 based on 2020 rates, and one additional personal leave day.
For half an hour, some Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific Railroad workers stood bundled up outside Wyoming’s Capitol in heavy winter jackets and held blue and white signs with slogans including “Railroaders: Too Essential for Paid Sick Leave” and “Railroaders Demand Quality of Life.”
“Rail workers were deemed essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic,” April Ford, state legislative director for SMART, said. “We saw to it 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We delivered the gas, the coal, the food and in return we got a system where workers can’t get off when they are sick.”
Tamsin Johnson, executive director of the Wyoming AFL-CIO, said rallygoers are giving up their rest time to stand in solidarity and express appreciation for workers.
“Many of the rail workers who came today are going back to work in the afternoon,” Johnson said. “They’re freezing, but they’re going to warm up and then go back. It’s really important we want to stand together and share this message that they deserve to be acknowledged.
