Unionized BP oil refinery workers picket at Chicago HQ for end of 100-day lockout

[Omaha Steve]

https://chicago.suntimes.com/business/2026/06/26/union-bp-oil-refinery-picket-lockout

By David Struett Updated Jun 26, 2026, 4:22pm CDT

As unionized British Petroleum oil refinery workers reached the 100th day of being locked out of their jobs in northwest Indiana, they took the fight to BP’s headquarters in Downtown Chicago to demand the company accept their contract offer.

The 800 locked out workers say their livelihoods are at stake, as well as nearly 100 union jobs that BP insists on laying off at the refinery in Whiting, Indiana.

David Wesolowski, 50, has one of the dozens of union positions that BP wants to eliminate and replace with contractors.

He, along with hundreds of others who rallied outside BP’s Chicago office at 30 S. Wacker on Friday, said BP’s hardball negotiating tactics — and quick move to lock out the workers just two months into contract bargaining — are deeply unfair.

FULL story at link above.


United Steelworkers Local 7-1 President Eric Schultz rallies with USW members and their supporters Friday outside British Petroleum’s corporate offices at 30 S. Wacker Dr. in the Loop, demanding management return to the bargaining table and end its lockout of about 800 union members at the refinery in Whiting, Indiana.Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times