Gwen Segally will do pretty much anything to spend time with her mom these days, even getting up early on a Saturday to stand on the picket line.
The informational picket out front of BP Whiting Refinery on Indianapolis Boulevard wasn’t even the 11-year-old’s first time joining the fight for a fair living. Gwen was 6 months old when mom Becky Segally had to bring her along during the 2015 refinery strike that ended up lasting 99 days, Becky Segally said.
Now, between organizing and working as many extra hours as she can to prepare for either the union striking or BP locking them out, there hasn’t been much quality family time, Becky Segally conceded. But even at her tender age, Gwen understands what’s at stake.
“People won’t be paid, and they can lose their jobs,” Gwen said. “And I feel like kids aren’t getting to see their parents.”
At least 250 union members from United Steelworkers Local 7-1, of which BP is a part, and other union members and supporters gathered at Amoco Park on 129th Street and, signs in hand, marched to the corner in front of the refinery’s so-called Glass Houses and lined up along Indianapolis Boulevard in a river of black, blue and gold. BP workers on duty laid on their horns in solidarity as they drove by in company trucks; a few even held up signs behind the gates.
Before the march began, USW Local President Eric Schultz spelled out for the picketers what’s at stake for BP’s workers, who’ve been working for the last three weeks under a rolling, 24-hour extension of its old contract. The demands from the company are much more severe than last time.
“They’re calling for the elimination of (at least) 100 jobs — not because they’re going away through technology, but because they want to farm them out to a nonunion group out of Louisiana,” Schultz said. “They want to eliminate our highest responsibility operator jobs, and they want to take those responsibilities and give them to management, take our associated pay away. Do we trust them to run those units?
“The company is proposing to eliminate our entire environmental department and contract it out to nonunion workers. Does that sound right to you? Why do you think they want to do that? It’s greed and power.”
The BP website detailing negotiations — whitingnegotiations.com — previously confirmed that the company has proposed reclassifying console operators to become salaried supervisory personnel as well as outsourcing non-core activities such as builders and HVAC, which BP says is “consistent with practices at other U.S. refineries.”
The company also wants to install surveillance using artificial intelligence without union input, Schultz said, and while that sounds like it’s BP’s worst demand, that’s only because AI’s on everyone’s minds these days.
Schultz said BP is aiming to cut salaries in every job class, with some jobs potentially facing a wage cut as high as 20%.
“What a lot of this is, it takes our leverage, but we’re a lot more prepared (than we were in 2015).”
Back then, the company struggled to keep things running, often having white-collar staff attempting to do their work, Schultz said. Those employees were locked in the plant for two-week periods, and they were paid for the time they were there.
This time, rumors abound that those who get locked in will be paid only 12 of the 24 hours they’re there, and he’s heard that the engineers have been quitting ahead of any escalation. That means the company will bring in people from other plants as the refinery is not only still recovering from the pandemic, but from 2015.
“(Outside workers) did a lot of damage to the plant that still hasn’t been fixed,” Schultz said. “That’s our concern: that we’re going to have something to come back to, because BP is notorious for not wanting to fix things. In the last year and a half, we’ve had two mass evacuations, and I’d never seen that prior to 2015.”
BP has trained replacement workers, consisting of current and former employees, to operate the refinery safely and in compliance with regulations if a work stoppage occurs, according to Post-Tribune archives.
Kris Enstrom, the Division 1 representative for Local 7-1, is worried about what’s going to happen to the plant.
“When you see the flares going off, that’s the last line of safety. Three times in the last year and a half, every flare in every unit has gone off,” he said.
Enstrom, who’s been involved in the negotiations, called them “excruciating.” In 2015, the company showed a willingness to work with the union; it’s not happening now.
“While BP claims to be for the community, it’s really about its profit margins,” Enstrom said. “It’s trying to make these demands and get rid of us while they lost millions with the direct cost of replacement workers. Strikes aren’t good for anyone, but I fear they’re not giving us any other option.”
Husband and wife Don and Renee Skalka, of Munster, board operators who have 19 and 21 years at BP respectively, come from a long line of refinery workers. They’re not sure they’re going to be able to take the hit a prolonged strike would bring.
“They’ve told us they’re not paying for our insurance this time, and when we looked at COBRA, that’s $1,000 a month,” Renee Skalka said. “That’s a black eye.”
“It feels more like a vendetta against the industry,” Don Skalka added. “And it’s not just the 900 jobs that will be affected: From Whiting to Porter County, everyone will be affected. They’re going after the people behind us and trying to tell us they’re ‘barely keeping the lights on, but they made $7.5 billion in profits.”
BP released the following statement Saturday: “We value our employees and respect their right to assemble. The bp Whiting Refinery is still negotiating in good faith with the union to improve the safety and competitiveness of our business and create a sustainable future for all. bp is committed to safe, compliant, and efficient operations.”
On Jan. 5, BP and the union started negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement, according to Post-Tribune archives. The previous agreement expired at 11:59 p.m. Jan. 31, and the two parties couldn’t reach an agreement by deadline. The company has held 42 documented bargaining sessions with the union since Jan. 5, according to an email from its spokesperson. The parties have also met in informal settings to discuss the proposals.
U.S. Rep. Frank J. Mrvan, D-Highland, came out to support the picketers. He recalled being out there with them in 2015 as well, when he was North Township trustee, and while there’s little he can do for the workers at the federal level, he can “stand with the local brothers and sisters of 7-1 and the United Steelworkers” as they stood behind him.
“We have to figure out a way to make them understand that the greatest asset any company has is the workers,” Mrvan said. “They deserve to be paid, work in a safe place and have the dignity of a good retirement. We’re concerned about the 100 members that could get laid off, AI tracking workers wherever they go and having all the power go to the corporation and the workers being left behind. We’re here to fight for the families of Northwest Indiana.”
A negotiation meeting was scheduled for Feb. 15, Schultz said. The union already has strike authorization from 98% of the refinery’s 840 union workers; Local 7-1’s bargaining unit will take it to USW international for final approval.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune; Staff writer Maya Wilkins contributed.
