Workers Locked Out of Jobs at Greco Steel Products

Labor Landscape

Workers are still being locked out of their jobs at Greco Steel’s Springdale, Pa., headquarters as some employees continued their yearlong struggle for a contract with the company. 

Nine of the company’s 16 employees won a narrow vote – 9-7 – to join the Iron Workers International Union last October. Still without a contract months later, the steelworkers opted to go on strike in April.  

Since then, the group has picketed at several worksites and outside the company’s office on Keene Street, according to the Iron Workers International Union. Despite the yearlong effort, there has been no response from Greco Steel, the union reported.

According to the workers, they are fighting working conditions, which some believe could have prevented the death of 44-year-old Joe Gazzo Jr., who fell through a roof at a job site at Pine-Richland High School in 2023.   

 Pennsylvania state Sen. Lindsey M. Williams is also concerned about the lingering strike.  “When workers at Greco Steel lost one of their coworkers to a preventable on the job injury, they didn’t fold.  They stood up for themselves and fought for better wages, better benefits, and a safe workplace so that they can take care of their families every night,’’ said Williams, who represents the 38^th senatorial district of Allegheny County. 

Williams said it is “unconscionable that the owners of  Greco Steel don’t feel the same.  Their business was built off the backs of these workers – the least they can do is sit down and negotiate a fair contract with them.’’

Greco Steel Products – which both makes steel products and erects them at construction sites – has challenged the union vote. The striking workers are part of the company’s  onsite erection crew.  

The issue is still sitting before  the National Labor Relations Board.  Company officials declined to comment. 

 The percentage of workers belonging to a union varies by country.  In 2024, it was 9.4 percent in the United States, compared to 20.1 percent in 1983, the first year with  data suitable for comparison. There were  14.3 million people in unions in 2022, down from the 17.7 million in 1983, according to the U.S. Labor Department. 

The first labor union created in the United States was the National Labor Union founded in Maryland in 1866. It was the first attempt  to create a national labor group, and one of their first actions was the first national call for Congress to mandate  an eight-hour work day.  

Last year, there were 31 major work stoppages that idles more than 270,000 workers, resulting in 3.4 million days of idleness. In 2025, there have been 199 major union strikes, the U.S. Labor Department reported. 

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