Pierce Kelly, a NIPSCO employee, said his wife has been a stay-at-home mom for 13 years raising their five children, four boys and one girl, the youngest. Now, she’s started applying for work-from-home jobs as Kelly has been locked out by NIPSCO amid union negotiations.
When NISPCO locked out employees last Thursday, Kelly said it was his daughter’s first birthday and he missed it. Kelly, part of the United Steelworkers Local 12775 bargaining committee, said he didn’t get home until 9:30 p.m. last Thursday, so he had just enough time to kiss her goodnight before she went to bed.
His wife has thrown major first birthday parties for their four sons, Kelly said, but amid the lockout, his daughter’s first birthday party was canceled. The immediate family, minus Pierce Kelly, had a taco dinner and cake to celebrate his daughter’s birthday, he said.
“Normally, we have a big first birthday but we didn’t do it with her because of just the uncertainty of the negotiations,” Kelly said. “We held off from throwing a party with a bunch of people.”
More than 800 British Petroleum employees have been locked out of their jobs for about three weeks, while 1,630 NIPSCO employees have been locked out of their jobs for a more than a week as each union hasn’t reached a contract agreement with its respective company.
The employees and Northwest Indiana will be economically impacted by the two lockouts, said Indiana University Bloomington Willard and Margaret Carr Professor of Labor and Employment Law Professor Kenneth Dau-Schmidt.
“When people are without wages for a while, that takes money out of the economy,” Dau-Schmidt said. “I think you have to worry about the long-run impact on the local economy too. It seems like both of the employers right now are being fairly aggressive in trying to whittle away at the number of union jobs and replace them with unorganized subcontractors … and that will take money out of the local economy too, if they are successful with that over time.”
With NIPSCO unions also locked out, USW 7-1 President Eric Schultz said he’s unaware that a similar situation has happened in Northwest Indiana or the rest of the state.
“It doesn’t affect how we’re going to interact with British Petroleum,” Schultz said. “We’ll still continue to meet any time they’re willing to meet. … I think what it does is put more of a strain on the community.”
Schultz believes the region will see “a pretty major impact” on local businesses when more than 2,400 workers don’t have a paycheck and can’t contribute to the region’s economy. As prices continue to rise nationwide, Schultz believes businesses are going to feel an even larger impact.
On April 12, Kelly will have reached 16 years of working for NIPSCO. He expects to be locked out from his job for that milestone as well.
When Kelly, then 23 years old, got the call that he was hired as a meter reader by NIPSCO he said it was “a life-changing move.”
“I’m going to have benefits. I’m going to be in a union,” Kelly recalled thinking. “I can start making enough money to stop living paycheck to paycheck.”
Kelly, now a gas serviceman for NISPCO, said he applied for unemployment benefits for the first time in his life since the lockout. It’s unclear if he will receive benefits, he said, but he said he had to try.
It pained him to file the application because he — and other union members — want to keep working, Kelly said.
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“We want to continue to work. We did not walk away from the table,” Kelly said. “The membership is united. We want to work, but we don’t want to work for a loss of pay. We don’t want to be indentured servants to the company.”
Since 2009, with a one-year break amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kelly family has held a hog roast for their neighbors, friends and family at a park near their Valparaiso home, Kelly said. For the roast, Kelly said he cooks 16 pork butts and his wife prepares the sides and desserts.
They ask those who come to give a donation to a charity of the family’s choosing, which changes every year, he said. But, after talking with his wife, Kelly said they decided to cancel this year’s hog roast to save money.
Kelly, 39, said the family has savings, but he and his wife have been having conversations about switching grocery stores and cutting back on nonessential spending amid the lockout.
For example, Kelly said one of his sons asked him for new track shoes. Kelly said he asked his son if his current track shoes fit, and when his son said they do, he had to tell him he can’t get new shoes right now.
He’ll think twice about rounding up his grocery bill for charity because that change could add up over time, Kelly said. The family’s weekend tradition of dad buying donuts for the kids will be put on pause, he said.
“I’m not going to go out and grab a dozen donuts now. We’ve got to tighten the belt just because you have to do it. It’s all the little stuff that you don’t think about that you go and do,” Kelly said.
United Steel Workers Local 12775 vice president Vern Beck said the company locking out employees — as opposed to a union strike — should give employees a better case to receive unemployment benefits.
The union has an emergency health program that covers catastrophic events, Beck said, and it has a strike and defense fund to further help employees. The strike and defense funds can be used for house and car payments, he said.
The union pays out about half a million dollars a week to its membership for essential payments, Beck said. But, the union payments can’t go toward many bills people receive, he said, so members will have to dip into savings for those payments.
“It’s going to hurt because you still have all the small utility bills, phone bills and cable bills. It’s going to have an impact,” Beck said, adding that solidarity among union members has remained strong.
At the community level, Beck said NISPCO customers have been waiting longer for service amid the lockout.
“Everybody suffers. The workers that are locked out suffer. The community suffers and the businesses suffer,” Beck said.
In a statement to the Post-Tribune on the economic impact of the lockout, NIPSCO spokesman Eric Hardgrove said the company has offered lineworkers a 9% salary increase, new parental level benefit, and more promotional opportunities and apprenticeship programs.
The company and the union have worked through nearly 200 proposals and “negotiated in good faith” since January 20, Hardgrove said.
“NIPSCO’s commitment to the economic health of Northwest Indiana isn’t in doubt – it’s demonstrated every single day,” Hardgove said. “What’s really threatening our local economy is USW’s negotiators’ refusal to accept our offer that puts significant dollars into our employees’ pockets.”
Hardgrove said as of Friday, by not signing the offer, the union lost out on a $5,000 ratification bonus.
“Every day this drags on is a day USW (local) leadership is choosing confrontation over what’s best for their members and our community,” Hardgrove said.
Beck said the union has been focused on strengthening language in the contract for union employees as NIPSCO hires more contract workers. The union also wants to ensure that workers have a reasonable amount of overtime, mandatory overtime and on-call hours, Beck said.
“We’re ready to get back to the negotiating table. We never wanted to leave the negotiating table. This is completely on them,” Beck said.
It’s important for all union members to stand together during their respective lockouts, Schultz said. USW 7-1 members are prepared to be locked out for several months.
“It’s unfortunate that there’s so many people out of work at the same time,” Schultz said. “But at the same time, it does kind of create some common bonds amongst families and neighbors now.”
BP responded to Northwest Indiana concerns about the lockout in a Thursday statement.
“BP is continuing to safely operate the Whiting refinery,” the company statement said. “We do not expect impacts to our operations due to the work stoppage. We planned for the possibility of this scenario, training workers in advance to maintain our ability to safely produce energy for this region.”
A recent screenshot of a Facebook post has been posted in the “Save Whiting and Neighbors” group that is recruiting operators for a “six-month project” in Whiting, “supporting a major facility.” The post does not name BP.
A refinery spokesperson said in an email that the post is not legitimate and wasn’t authorized by BP, and the company remains “ready and willing to continue negotiations.”
Dau-Schmidt said “it seems pretty daring” that two big companies have taken major stakes to undermine union bargaining power. BP has been known to replace union employees with nonunion employees, which has resulted in safety issues, such as the Texas City refinery explosion in 2005, the Prudhoe Bay oil spill in 2006, and the Deep Water Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 as well as many other documented safety concerns, Dau-Schmidt said.
“BP has, before, kind of cut costs at the expense of safety, and they haven’t always gotten away with it. The local economy could be worried about that too,” Dau-Schmidt said.
With the NIPSCO lockout, Dau-Schmidt said it appears that the company wants to cut union jobs to give jobs to contractors as a way to make more money. Over time, that can cause safety issues as well, which would impact the local economy, he said.
When an accident occurs, community members could be injured and the companies could be shut down, which would impact the local economy, Dau-Schmidt said.
As employees make less money, Dau-Schmidt said local businesses could feel the impact of that because those employees will either buy less or stop coming to the business. Over time, that could lead to those impacted businesses laying off their employees, which adds to a community’s number of out-of-work people, he said.
“Anytime you take money out of an economy, it slows the economy down and it lowers opportunities for profits. It also lowers opportunity for workers to make money as wage earners,” Dau-Schmidt said.
USW 7-1 members Akshay Patel and Mike Grzybowski have both picketed since the lockout began at midnight March 19. Patel has worked for the refinery for 15 years, and Grzybowski has worked there for 17 years.
Grzybowski said this lockout is different from the union’s strike in 2015.
“Negotiations just went south,” Grzybowski said. “They want a lot of concessions from us, as far as not just money, but also losses of jobs and bargaining rights. … It doesn’t sound like they even want to talk.”
Patel also believes that the strike was different from the lockout, he said, and this time stings more for him. He feels that the company is saying they don’t need union workers with the lockout, Patel said.
“I always felt like this is my family, and this is my home away from home,” Patel said. “Now, my heart doesn’t believe that this company believes we’re one team or one family because they chose to starve my family over very petty things. … Even though I’ll go back to work, it won’t be a safe feeling.”
Patel has a daughter who is a pre-medical student in college, and he’s worried about helping pay for her school. He also has a son who is going to college in the fall.
On top of paying for school, Patel also has a mortgage and utility bills to pay.
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“I still have savings that I’m trying to use towards it, but if this goes beyond like two, three or four months, I’m going to have to look for another job, which now I started actively searching for,” he said.
Employees also applied for unemployment benefits, but Patel said his are still not yet approved. He worries that employers won’t hire him if they see he works for BP, Patel said, adding that they might expect him to return to the refinery once the lockout ends.
“I don’t know how we can get some extra money from anywhere to help start paying for these bills,” Patel said.
Grzybowski said he saved and prepared prior to the lockout, but it’s still difficult when workers have bills to pay and no income.
“I’m sure people want to buy a new car or do whatever they want to do, or they might have a kid or two in college,” Grzybowski added. “You try to save the best you can, but it’s going to go away real quick.”
Grzybowski expects that the region will struggle economically with thousands of union workers without jobs, he said. He does appreciate small businesses and local organizations that have offered assistance.
“This area is very union friendly because either their family member, neighbor or somebody they know is working for BP or NIPSCO,” Grzybowski said. “They understand the hardships of going through any kind of strike or lockout, and that’s why (the help) is tremendous.”
Businesses and organizations throughout Northwest Indiana have shown support for union workers, including Valparaiso’s Pop Warner youth sports league. The organization’s Executive Director Kirsten Kus said they aren’t taking payments from union workers, as long as they can show their membership cards.
Valparaiso’s Pop Warner league has about five union families that have received help, Kus said.
“Northwest Indiana is a huge union community,” Kus said. “Although I’m a lawyer by day, … my family is blue collar, industrial and union workers. I understand the importance of that and how much family means.”
The league’s board of directors has been instrumental in its assistance toward union workers, Kus said. She believes all children should have the opportunity to play sports, no matter the economic situation.
“We’re not going to let a kid suffer from this,” Kus said. “No matter the circumstances, if one of our members in our community is hurting, we want to help.”
Tech Credit Union is offering emergency financial relief for USW 7-1, USW 12775 and USW 13796 members, according to the organization’s social media. Financial relief includes up to $1,500, no fees and 90 days to first payment, allowing members to delay their loan payments if needed.
“During uncertain times, we’re committed to helping our community stay financially stable,” a Tech Credit Union social media post says. “We stand side by side with union workers in our communities. We are union strong and where labor banks.”
Mint Motors, a North Judson-based auto dealer, has also supported union workers, saying online that any union customers struggling with payments can reach out for options.
Food Bank of Northwest Indiana President and CEO Victor Garcia told the Post-Tribune that he and his team have reached out to both unions to offer support, but so far, the situation is “in a holding pattern” with no clear window to the future, he said.
“We’ve been seeing an increase in demand, but I don’t know if it’s been what’s been going on overall in the economy locally, the lockouts or a combination of both,” Garcia said. “My assumption is a combination of both.”
Garcia previously told the Post-Tribune that the food bank was expected to have distributed around 11 million pounds of food in Lake and Porter Counties for 2025, which is a 35% decrease from 2019 levels. Meanwhile, 1 in 7 Northwest Indiana residents currently experience food insecurity, according to the Food Bank’s website.
Dau-Schmidt said he sees the lockouts lasting a couple months, which will increase the impact to the local economy. But, what could impact BP’s lockout is if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed down and the price of gas stays above $4 a gallon, then BP officials may feel pressure to end the lockout and make money, Dau-Schmidt said.
The union workers have to maintain their solidarity if they want a fair contract, Dau-Schmidt said.
“The workers have to maintain their solidarity and picket the company,” Dau-Schmidt said. “To the extent that they can maintain their solidarity and hang out, their bargaining power will increase.”
Post-Tribune freelance reporter Michelle L. Quinn contributed.