On April 2nd, around 1,600 workers with the utility company NIPSCO, that covers gas and electricity delivery for the northern part of Indiana, were locked out from work in a fascist move by the bosses who are making profits of billions of dollars. Members of the international communist Progressive Labor Party (PLP) have been visiting pickets almost daily to show support for our fellow workers and to share revolutionary analysis and politics as the answer to the bosses’ vicious attacks.

Not to be forgotten are the 800 workers of the British Petroleum (BP) refinery in nearby Whiting, who have been locked out since March 19th. PLP attended the workers picket bringing food and communist politics. 

We will continue fighting to show solidarity with these industrial workers to build the revolutionary power that poses a real challenge to this racist deadly capitalist system.

The following is a speech made at a recent PLP fundraiser by a longtime PL member and NIPSCO worker, where he gives a long-term assessment of the struggle and the worker-run communist world we need to fight for.

I remember guys, when I first started, telling me that we had lifetime jobs at NIPSCO. ‘People will always need gas and electricity!’ I responded that we were not immune from the attacks facing other workers, including steel mills at the time that were closing and ending pensions. The capitalist system doesn’t look to take care of people. It looks to take care of profits. The Democrats and Republicans have all been involved trying to save their empire and leaving pollution and rust belts all over the world.

And sure enough, all through the late 1980s and early 90s and up to today, NIPSCO has cut us back. Bidding out or retiring, when somebody left, their position wasn’t replaced. We have no welders at my station. If something comes up, we have to call another area to see if they have a welder who can help us out. 

So, the company has the upper hand. They have also brought in scabs, temporary workers from all over to do our work. Of course, this makes the situation unsafe. We know the infrastructure, the trucks, the experience.

So why is there a lockout? I think they want to crush the union. We will have to work like we don’t have a union! Us working overtime will be up to them. If they say we have to work past eight hours, we will have to work or be disciplined. 

The bosses have tried to smear the reputation of the workers by posting online the wages of workers who have worked lots of OT. But four years ago, there were 40 linemen in the Gary district. Today there are 14! Trying to keep up with the work and doing a lot of overtime in the process. 

And then the company has the gall to mock these workers and try to turn the public against us. 

Community speakers at a meeting in Gary did not buy the line that NIPSCO bosses were trying to use. Speaker after speaker condemned the company bosses and their outrageous utility bills going up through the roof, but they stood with the locked-out workers who were present!

These examples show the idiocy of capitalism. There are all kinds of gas lines and electric lines that need to be replaced while so many people are out of work. Elderly workers who are retired and on fixed incomes can’t get heat and air conditioning when they need it to stay alive! The working class could do all those things if we had the power to do it. 

One great point about the lockout that has been commented on more than once is that we’ve been able to get to know our coworkers better!

There is a lot of goodwill amongst us! There has been a greater feeling of antiracism. A recent rally had the largely Black and female clerical union joining the mainly white utility workers. The solidarity was palpable. It gives you a taste of the joy there could be in the world if the working class ran it and used it to share all that we produce with those who need it. March on May Day for a communist future!”

Tentative agreement for crumbs, permanent struggle for communism

Although as of April 16th the NIPSCO pickets were suspended on account of a tentative agreement with the company, we know that the struggle is far from over. PLP is fighting to win workers to the idea that there is no contract with the capitalists that could ever match our worth as working people, that the whole foundation of the capitalist system is making profits off the exploitation of our labor. Our collective goal should go beyond the idea of a “fair” contract and be the complete abolition of wages and exploitation through communist revolution, and we need to keep building the mass PLP to ever achieve that.