unions

Workers at Yellowstone National Park recently voted to unionize in a landslide vote. The organization hopes to improve working conditions, pay and general satisfaction.

Congress invoked the Railway Labor Act, passed nearly a century ago, that forced the four remaining rail unions that had rejected the Biden Administration's brokered deal largely due to a lack of stipulations for paid time off to accept it, avoiding a nationwide strike. But a Gillette union leader indicated there are potential positives for rail unions and workers in their relationships with the the railroads.

A union representing workers at both Kroger and Albertsons locations in Colorado and Wyoming, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, called the announcement “devastating." General council for the union Matt Shechter said he’s been getting calls from members worried about store consolidation, layoffs and rising food prices.

The Biden administration played a key role in brokering the agreement, which was done to avoid a strike that would have brought trains to a halt across the country. Now, there are renewed concerns that a strike could occur in the coming months after the country's third largest rail union rejected the contract. The impacts of a strike would significantly impact the economies in Wyoming and nationwide.

The strike was expected to have cost the U.S. economy around $2 billion per day. The agreement represents 100,000 or the country's approximately 150,000 railroad workers, including those employed by Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) and Union Pacific (UP), the two major railroads that operate in the state. Several thousand Wyomingites are currently employed in the rail industry.

A Pew Research Center analysis found that one in six journalists are now part of a union, and more than twice that want to join one. However, it also found that smaller publications, like those in the rural Mountain West, are less likely to unionize. Of those with fewer than 10 people, only 4% have a union.

A long-time coal miner in the Powder River Basin said he worries his employer is not taking the risks of COVID-19 seriously despite instituting safety…