By ERNIE GOTTA

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Oil giant British Petroleum (BP) has locked out 800 members of United Steelworkers Local 7-1 (USW) in Northwest Indiana. The lockout began March 18 after union members rejected the company’s “last, best, and final offer” by 98.3%, with 94.1% of the membership present for the vote.

On the USW’s website they explain how the company’s “best offer” would have reduced wages, outsourced hundreds of jobs, weakened seniority rights, and introduced more automation and AI into the workplace. However, as the union issued a strike notice 24 hours prior to the strike, the company locked workers out, citing safety hazards. Now, non-union scab labor has been brought in from Texas and Louisiana to replace skilled union workers at the Whiting, Ind., refinery.

The sprawling 1400-acre refinery actually reaches into part of Chicago, so it was no surprise that USW members showed up to Wrigley Field for the series of classic crosstown baseball games between the Chicago Cubs and the White Sox on Aug. 17-19. During the games, union members canvassed the over 100,000 people who attended with their petition to end the lockout, and they flooded the area surrounding Wrigley with petitioners on Aug. 20.

Union picketing at the refinery has continued since March and was only disrupted by severe tornadoes and storms that ripped through Northwest Indiana. USW Local 7-1 posted pictures on their Facebook of members helping clean up debris. The union’s post says, “Five months ago today, we were abruptly locked out of our jobs during contract negotiations with British Petroleum. It’s not been easy for hundreds of local families to go without paychecks because of the London company’s decision, but our community has shown incredible support during our time of need, donating food, money, school supplies and more. That is why we are out here supporting other families in their time of need. Since tornadoes and storms destroyed our community last week, we’ve all come together—doing all we can to help one another when we need it most. It’s what good neighbors do. We’re proud to call Northwest Indiana home. And we’re proud to show solidarity.”

Lockouts and strikes have a powerful effect that can open new avenues of solidarity. In May, the environmental group Northwest Indiana Just Transition started organizing support for locked-out workers by setting up a resource drive in which residents can drop off goods at local cafes and breweries. They also set up an Amazon wish list where people could send needed items directly to the union hall.

A Chicago Sun Tribune article quoted the NWI Just Transition Director and Whiting resident Lisa Vallee, “It might seem like a pipe dream in Indiana currently to move to a regenerative economy, but I think solidarity with union workers is a great first step to building trust with our organization, and hopefully that leads to a more dynamic conversation with workers and union leaders.”

The war in Iran, climate change, and local environmental concerns about pollution are all relevant to the long-term viability of the oil industry across the U.S. So it’s always important to see connections being made between unions and environmental groups that center the struggle of the working class against the capitalist class. Similarly, during the autoworker strike of 2023, the Labor Network for Sustainability led a solidarity effort to support 43,000 striking UAW members against the Big Three car manufacturers.

Historically, there are many examples of unions playing a leading role around environmental issues, including creating higher safety standards or even transitioning away from industry that is harmful to our communities in favor of sustainable industry and economically viable solutions for workers. Union leaders like Tony Mazzocchi of the Atomic and Chemical Worker Unions and William Winpisinger of the International Association of Machinists pioneered this work in bucking the conventional thinking of unions and only looking out for their members’ economic interests.

USW Local 7-1 members will need solidarity from all corners to outlast a major oil company like BP. The Whiting refinery in Northern Indiana is the largest inland refinery in the U.S. and is producing around 440,000 barrels of oil per day. The plant is highly profitable. BP even pumped more than $4 billion into the refinery in a modernization project aimed at refining heavy sour crude oil from the tar-sands-rich area of Alberta, Canada. They are seeing tremendous returns for their investment.

While Whiting is just one piece in a vast capitalist enterprise, BP has seen its profits double as the U.S. war in Iran has obstructed shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, driving up oil prices. An Aug. 4 CNBC article by Sam Meredith reports, “The oil giant posted underlying replacement cost profit, used as a proxy for net profit, of $5.7 billion for the April to June period. That comfortably beat analyst expectations of $5 billion, according to an LSEG-compiled consensus. BP’s net profit came in at $2.35 billion over the same period last year and $3.2 billion for the first three months of 2026.”

President Trump’s recent phony outrage at the oil industry’s profits is laughable. “They’re making too much money based on a shortage,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Aug. 3. “I don’t like it.” Trump’s performative antics underline the fact that his regime could end the bogus war on Iran tomorrow, stabilize the market, and lower gas prices. Furthermore, Trump has said nothing about BP locking out its workers while making record profits.

As the recently departed Dolly Parton, a country music icon for many working people, sang in the song “9 to 5”:

Barely gettin’ by, it’s all takin’ and no givin’

They just use your mind and they never give you credit

It’s enough to drive you crazy if you let it

9 to 5, yeah, they got you where they want you

There’s a better life and you think about it, don’t you?

It’s a rich man’s game no matter what they call it

And you spend your life puttin’ money in his wallet.

Working people have an important opportunity to stand with the USW and help its members to resist economic hardship. We encourage readers to stand in solidarity with this strike by going to Supportoilworkers.com, where you can buy a t-shirt, donate directly to family household and medical bills, drop off food, volunteer to picket, sign their petition, or hang a sign on a business or home.

The post Solidarity with BP oil union workers! End the lockout! first appeared on Workers’ Voice/La Voz de los Trabajadores.

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