GRIFFITH, Ind. — A special benefit concert is being put on here by three bands — the Effigies, the Bollweevils and the Rumble — to raise money and build solidarity for the 800 oil refinery workers, members of United Steelworkers Local 7-1, who have been locked out by BP for five months.
The unionists are determined to continue their fight to get a contract and their jobs back. They’re winning widespread support in this heavily unionized northwestern part of Indiana near Chicago.
“I heard a little bit about the lockout,” Steven E. James, who lives in Chicago but most of the time is on the road with his band, the Effigies, told me on the phone Aug. 15. “So I looked at the newspapers on the internet, including the Militant, to get more information. I thought, what little thing can we do to help them?
“I talked with union President Eric Schultz and the other bands, and we came up with the idea of a concert Aug. 21 at a very nice venue, Avenue 912 in Griffith. If we help raise some funds, great. But we mainly want to build morale.
“When we first started the band, I was young. I wasn’t very aware politically. I didn’t know what the unions were fighting for,” he said. “But the older I got, the more frustrated I became. The band traveled all over. I saw homeless people living under bridges and immigrants stuffed into abandoned warehouse buildings. And I decided that something had to be done about it.
“I hope other entertainers of many kinds of genres will do the same. We can change society. But we need everyone to work together.”
The concert will be held at Avenue 912, 202 W. Ridge Road in Griffith. A ticket costs $20, which will go to the USW 7-1 Strike and Defense Fund. All the union members get in free. Doors open at 6 p.m., music begins at 7.
For more information on the lockout, or to find out how to send a contribution, call the union at (219) 659-1181 or write to Local 7-1 at 2045 Schrage Ave., Whiting, IN 46394.