USW workers rallied Friday outside BP offices in Chicago

Megaphones, whistles, rattles and even a few vuvuzelas blared in the canyon of glass-and-steel skyscrapers in the Loop on Friday as hundreds of workers rallied to call for an end to the lockout at the BP Whiting Refinery.

The United Steelworkers union rallied and protested outside BP's corporate offices in the CME Center on Friday, exhorting BP to negotiate in good faith and reach an agreement to bring employees back to work after going three months without a paycheck. U.S. Rep. Frank J. Mrvan, D-Indiana; U.S. Rep. Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, D-Illinois; Porter County Clerk Jessica Bailey; state Sen. Rodney Pol, D-Chesterton, and other politicians walked the picket line.

USW District 7 Director Mike Millsap said BP was demanding concessions from the union after turning a $3.2 billion profit in the first quarter.

"In order to reach a fair agreement, both sides have to be willing to bargain. When you make proposals, you bargain. They're not making proposals. What they're doing is demanding," he said. "They demand to reduce the number of union employees and give them small severance pay. What's crazy about this is they're not going to eliminate the work. They're going to give the work to the contractors and pay union wages and union benefits for it while they lay off my members."

BP is asking for a six-year agreement with only four years of wage increases that don't keep up with inflation, while executives make millions of dollars in compensation, Millsap said.

"Do you know what you're paying for food? Do you know what you're paying for housing?" he said. "None of these executives go in that refinery every day and work in hazardous conditions to make this company profits to pay these guys their high compensation packages."

The company brought in $189 billion in revenue last year, including a $7.5 billion profit, Millsap said.

"You're doing this to the workers who are making that money? Are you serious?" he said. "This is not enough money?"

BP and USW Local 7-1 have met for 63 formal bargaining sessions, but remain far apart on proposals, a BP spokesman said.

"We value our employees and respect their right to assemble," BP said in a statement issued Friday morning. "BP is committed to safe, compliant and efficient operations, and we will continue negotiating in good faith with the union. The refinery continues to operate safely, reliably and compliantly, with no impact to operations because of the current labor dispute."

USW Local 7-1 President Eric Schultz said workers were digging in deeper and fortifying themselves.

"They picked the wrong battle with the wrong union," he said. "There's only been two lockouts in the oil industry in the last 30 years. They locked out our siblings down in Beaumont, Texas, with a very similar contract proposal for 10-and-a-half months. These aren't negotiations. This is a ransom."

Schultz expressed frustration with progress in the negotiations, saying BP was engaged in surface bargaining and not bargaining in good faith.

"They don't want to deal. They want to lock their families out. They want to starve their families out until they submit," he said. "It's not going to work."

State Sen. Fady Qaddoura from Indianapolis said he understood what it means to live without paychecks, having been homeless and unemployed after Hurricane Katrina.

"I understand what it means to live paycheck-to-paycheck. I understand when a CEO makes $100,000 a minute or second or hour while our workers ask for a few more dollars an hour," he said. "It is wrong to take advantage of hard-working families that play by the rules, that work hard every day and that are the backbone of America. They built this nation."

He said he would fight in the Indiana General Assembly to hold BP accountable if it did not end the lockout and bring workers back.

"Here is my message to BP: You are not welcome to work in Indiana if you disrespect our workers," he said. "You cannot work in a state, rob our workers, put their families in anxiousness and fear for months, threaten their livelihood and claim that you're a good corporate citizen. Not in Indiana. We will not tolerate that. We will not accept it."

Garcia said workers deserved a share of the multinational corporation's profits and said everyone should share in the prosperity.

"Lockouts are un-American," he said. "Lockouts are unfair."

Mrvan said that, when he was North Township trustee, he helped USW Local 7-1 workers while they were striking in 2015. He said the company should consider the children of the employees it locked out.

"Look out your windows. Put your lattes down. Understand from Whiting to Washington to Chicago, we're not going to relent," he said. "The lockout will not drive fear. The lockout is wanting us to show fear. If you sat by yourself, if you were alone without the solidarity of a union, you might be scared. They want you to think about your mortgage, your rent, your heating bill, your electricity. They want you to think about your children's next day in school. But what they cannot do is take away our solidarity and our union. The lockout will not divide us."

Mrvan said that he planned to exert as much influence and pressure as possible to get BP to bring the workers back to work at the refinery. He again called on the Trump administration to intervene.

"We have an offshore company locking out American workers in Northwest Indiana," he said. "If you used your voice — make a damn tweet and say put our families back to work. It's a national security issue. It's a matter of energy costs. Most importantly, it puts my family members and friends and these children's parents back to work. God bless the United Steelworkers. If you're in Northwest Indiana and you believe in the unions, stand with these individuals who are locked out today."

USW International President Roxanne Brown said the international union that represents more than 700,000 workers across North America has the local workers’ backs.

“BP, you don’t understand that you are (expletive) with the wrong union,” she said. “Bleep it. The Steelworkers are a fighting union, and we don’t back down. We fight for dignity. We fight for fairness. We fight for our families. These kids that are back here are not props. These are the kids of the families that work at this refinery. They are the future we are fighting for.”