NIPSCO locked out 1,600 workers on April 2, 2026, after the utility said it would keep them out until the union accepted its last, best and final offer. The move landed in the middle of a labor dispute that already had been building for months across northwest Indiana.
The workers are represented by USW Local 12775, which covers largely male utility electric and gas employees, and USW Local 13796, which represents dominantly women clerical and support workers. The lockout affects hundreds of thousands of northwest Indiana customers, tying a contract fight directly to daily service in a region that depends on the utility for heat, power and gas.
The pressure on the company is not just about labor. NIPSCO customers were told in October 2025 that their bills would vary, and the writer said three neighbors had paid more than $875 a month since then while a budgeted bill for a small apartment in Michigan City came to about $185 a month. That gap has turned the dispute into more than a bargaining fight; it has become a test of whether the utility can defend rising costs while asking workers to accept its terms.
There is also a second layer to the story. Blackstone Infrastructure Partners finalized a $2.15 billion purchase of a 19.9% minority stake in NIPSCO from NiSource in early 2024, and the article says the utility has been contracting work to companies far away from Northern Indiana. It also says NIPSCO had run out the clock on the previous contract and had been using out-of-state contractors while demanding mandatory overtime from rank-and-file workers. Those details undercut the company’s public image of a tightly run system and deepen the sense that the burden has been pushed onto workers and customers alike.
Vince Parisi tried to make the case last October, saying, “I’m proud of how this system has operated. During this cold snap, less than point one of our customers have seen any interruption, and because of the great men and women that get out there and work in this cold weather, those interruptions have been very minimal.” But the lockout makes the answer plain: NIPSCO chose confrontation over compromise, and the fight now sits squarely on the people who keep the system running and the customers paying for it.
