Workers at Nippon Sanso Matheson Gas go on strike

Workers at Nippon Sanso Matheson Gas in Greensburg are on strike. They could be seen holding signs and standing in front of the facility on Garden Street on Thursday.

"We are out here tonight for fighting for a fair wage and healthcare for all these guys here," said Johnny Higgins, the union steward.

Higgins said a contract for the Teamsters Local 30 union workers at Matheson Gas expired at the end of June.

Since April, workers said they've tried to negotiate with the company for a fair wage and better healthcare.

"We feel like we haven't got a cost-of-living raise here, and we're not even to that point now in negotiations. Bargaining has stalled. We're out here because of that," Higgins said.

The workers are all truck drivers with industrial routes that service local hospitals.

"A lot of the work that we do, we take cryogenic nitrogen down to Oakland for cancer research," Higgins said.

Those routes, he said, have since come to a halt as workers now strike outside the Matheson building, demanding the company meet them halfway.

"We're not getting beyond to the point of the cost-of-living raises that we should have had, but they're not meeting us halfway where we're at," Nick Skwara, a driver, said.

At this time, Higgins said no negotiations are scheduled.

"We want to get back to our customers and our jobs, and we want a fair wage to do it," Skwara said.

KDKA-TV reached out to Matheson Gas for comment and has not yet heard back.