Northern Indiana Public Service Company announced Friday that it has reached an agreement with United Steelworkers Local 13796, representing its clerical bargaining unit, thus ending a lockout that began nearly a month ago.
The clerical employees will return to work starting May 5 or their next scheduled shift, NIPSCO said in a release.
This follows a previous agreement reached on April 24 with USW Local 12775, the physical bargaining unit. Those employees returned to work on April 28.
“These agreements reflect our commitment to the safety of our workforce and customers, along with the reliability of our service,” Vince Parisi, President and COO of NIPSCO, said in the release. “We are glad our employees are coming back to work, and as one NIPSCO, we will be focused on the work ahead — together.”
The contract expired March 31. NIPSCO and the union have been negotiating since January 20, the Post-Tribune previously reported, but about 1,630 employees were officially locked out on the evening of April 2.
NIPSCO said its agreements include improved safety standards, higher-than-historical wage increases, enhanced benefits and career development opportunities.
During the lockout, there were a number of storm-related power outages with customer complaints about the time it took to restore power, but NIPSCO said it maintained “service continuity throughout the contract process, delivering safe and reliable electric and natural gas service to customers across Northern Indiana with zero OSHA recordable safety incidents during daily work.”
