United Steel Workers Local 12775 and NIPSCO have a tentative agreement, but union officials are cautious that it will end the stalemate between the two.
On Thursday evening, NIPSCO announced that the two reached an agreement earlier in the day, according to a news release. The agreement, however, won’t be final until the union ratifies it, and until it does, the lockout the company imposed April 2 remains in effect, the release said.
The company in the new agreement removed the biggest obstacle — the right to keep workers for at least three hours after their shift ends at its discretion — from their proposal Local 12775 Vice President Vern Beck told the Post-Tribune Friday. The company claimed that the move would increase the workers’ “work-life balance,” but workers say it would do anything but.
“We already have ‘stand-by’, where workers have to take a truck and be on-call (for a set-amount of time), and then there’s a ‘job extension,’ which is scheduled overtime. There’s also ‘major storm mode, where everyone’s on mandatory overtime,” Beck said. “To put three hours of mandatory whenever the company wanted would’ve absolutely killed our members’ right to have a life outside of work. It was a major sticking point.”
As there were at least 100 different proposals circulating between the two entities, union officials will spend some time compiling the new proposal’s details into a packet for its 1,600-plus members, Beck said. The union will then hold several informational meetings before an in-person vote for them within the next several days, he said.
Whether it’ll be accepted remains even more unclear than ever, he said.
“There are a lot of people who’re relieved that there’s an agreement, but there are also a lot of people who’re angry at the company for how they’ve acted, so it’s going to be tight,” Beck said. “The campaign the company pulled where they put out that a lineman makes $226,000 per year was very irresponsible because now, our workers who go on calls to disconnect power for a person who could be getting evicted over not paying rent or not paying NIPSCO will have to face people who believe they make that much when they don’t.
“The new (company leaders) weren’t brought in to be friends, and they’re really should be laws that say companies can’t be reckless and misleading with what they put out in the media.”
Pierce Kelly, a Local 12775 steward, said he has “mixed emotions” about the agreement because it’s not all good but not all bad, either. Still, he said he and the members would rather be working.
“We want to do our jobs, but we don’t want to take a bad deal, either,” Kelly said Friday. “Our job here is to get the best deal possible, and it’s rough, but also beautiful because it’s pure democracy: Everyone gets their say.”
The workers’ prior contract expired March 31. NIPSCO and the union have been negotiating since January 20, the Post-Tribune previously reported.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
