Solidarity Statement from PDC and PHU on the NIPSCO Lockout To the locked-out workers of NIPSCO and your families, We extend our full solidarity to the 1,700 union workers locked out by NIPSCO. Your fight is not just your own—it is a struggle shared by working people everywhere. In the wake of this lockout, the company will attempt to shape the narrative. It will highlight signing bonuses and wage increases while concealing what is actually being taken: secure healthcare, reasonable working hours, and the basic ability to live a life outside of work. This lockout exposes the reality behind corporate messaging. Workers are being asked to accept less control over their time, endure increased mandatory overtime, and face uncertainty around benefits they have already paid into. What is being demanded is not simply labor, but total submission to the needs of the company—at the expense of workers’ families, health, and dignity. For the overwhelming majority of workers affected, this is not about “wanting more money.” It is about protecting what little stability remains: the right to reliable healthcare, the ability to spend time with loved ones, and the refusal to be subjected to endless, forced labor under the threat of losing everything. NIPSCO’s actions make one thing clear: profit and control take priority over the well-being of the very people who keep the system running. We also reject the narrative that will be pushed in the coming days—that workers are to blame for rising utility costs, or that their resistance somehow harms other working people. This framing is designed to divide. Working-class people are not each other’s enemies. The same households struggling with high energy bills are the households whose labor is being exploited, whose conditions are being worsened, and whose security is being undermined. If costs continue to rise, it is not because workers are demanding dignity. It is because corporate profit remains protected at all costs. This is not a conflict between workers and ratepayers. It is a conflict between a profit-driven system and the people who are forced to live and work within it. The wealth generated through labor and paid by communities is not being reinvested for their benefit—it is being extracted. That is why this fight matters beyond any single workplace. If workers are divided, the outcome is predictable: lower standards, fewer protections, and greater control in the hands of corporations. But when workers recognize their shared interests and act together, that dynamic can be challenged. We call on all workers—union and non-union—to stand in solidarity with those locked out. Reject the attempts to turn working people against one another. Understand that the fight for fair conditions, healthcare, and control over one’s time is universal. An injury to one is an injury to all. Now is the time to unite—not as separate groups with competing interests, but as one working class with a common struggle. Stand with the workers. Oppose the lockout. Stand against the prioritization of profit over human life. In solidarity, PDC & PHU Peopleshousingunion.net