Nearly 3,800 JBS Workers in Greeley Plan Unfair-Labor-Practice Strike, Threatening Major U.S. Beef Output

Before dawn, a walkout

The first shift at the JBS beef plant in Greeley starts before dawn, when workers in hairnets and white smocks file past the smokestacks and into the sprawling complex locals still call Swift. On Monday morning, many of them say they will not go in.

Nearly 3,800 unionized employees at the Greeley facility plan to walk off the job at about 5:30 a.m. MDT on March 16, launching an unfair-labor-practice strike that could idle one of the largest beef plants in the United States and test the resilience of the nation’s meat supply chain.

The workers, represented by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, overwhelmingly voted in early February to authorize a strike. The plant’s contract expired in July 2025, and employees have been working under an extension that the union formally ended; that extension is scheduled to lapse at 11:59 p.m. Sunday.

A dispute over wages, safety and bargaining conduct

Union leaders say the dispute is about more than pay raises. They accuse JBS USA—the North American arm of Brazil-based JBS—of dangerous working conditions, unfair bargaining tactics and retaliation against outspoken workers in a plant already scarred by a deadly COVID-19 outbreak.

“This is an unfair labor practice strike,” said Kim Cordova, president of UFCW Local 7, in a recent statement. “JBS is insisting on poverty-level wages, shifting health care costs onto workers and engaging in regressive bargaining while these workers are the ones who risked their lives to keep food on America’s tables.”

JBS rejects those allegations and says it has bargained in good faith for eight months. The company says its proposal is “strong” and “fair,” pointing to a national pattern agreement it reached in 2025 with the UFCW that covers workers at other JBS plants.

“We have offered Greeley team members a comprehensive proposal that includes competitive wage increases, continued access to quality health care, retirement benefits and enhanced safety measures, consistent with the historic national agreement negotiated with UFCW,” JBS USA said in a written statement. The company said UFCW Local 7 “abruptly walked away from the negotiation table” and is “denying our Greeley team members the right to vote on this offer.”

At issue is how much of JBS’s recent gains will flow to a workforce that remains largely immigrant and lower income, even as retail beef prices and packer profits have climbed.

According to the union, JBS has proposed hourly wage increases of 60 cents in the first year of a new contract and 30 cents in each of the following two years. Cordova said rising health insurance costs—estimated by the union at the equivalent of 22 cents per hour—would leave some workers with net gains of only about 8 cents an hour in the first year.

JBS counters that average hourly wages at the Greeley plant have risen about 46% since 2019, compared with roughly 25% inflation along Colorado’s Front Range in that period. The company argues its offer keeps workers ahead of the cost of living.

Why the Greeley plant matters

Often referred to by its legacy name, Swift Beef, the facility is one of JBS’s flagship operations and anchors the company’s U.S. headquarters city. Industry estimates place its slaughter and processing capacity at roughly 5,000 to 5,400 head of cattle per day, making it Colorado’s largest beef slaughter facility and one of the biggest in the country.

JBS USA controls an estimated 18% to 22% of U.S. fed-cattle slaughter capacity through its network of plants. Analysts say losing Greeley, even temporarily, would remove roughly one-fifth of JBS’s American beef output and could tighten a market already dealing with limited cattle supplies and high prices.

News of the strike authorization earlier this year sent futures markets swinging, as traders tried to assess how a shutdown might affect packer margins and cattle flows. Some contracts fell even as fundamentals remained strong, reflecting uncertainty about how quickly cattle could be rerouted to other plants.

JBS has said it plans to keep the Greeley plant open and will permit any employee who does not want to strike to report to work and be paid. It also said it can temporarily shift production to other facilities to minimize disruptions. Union officials say they are preparing for substantial participation at the picket lines and have accused JBS of trying to intimidate workers ahead of the walkout—allegations the company denies.

Working conditions and unfair-labor-practice claims

Beyond wages, workers and union officials describe grueling conditions on the plant floor. They say management has increased “chain speeds”—the pace at which carcasses move down the line—while keeping staffing tight, heightening the risk of repetitive-motion injuries and accidents.

UFCW Local 7 has also accused JBS of charging workers for lost or damaged personal protective equipment, such as gloves or aprons, even though that gear is required under workplace safety rules. Cordova has said those deductions effectively penalize employees for complying with safety protocols in a hazardous environment.

The union has filed a series of unfair-labor-practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board’s Region 27 in Denver. They include allegations that JBS engaged in regressive bargaining by withdrawing prior offers, and that managers threatened to withhold bonuses and a proposed lump-sum pension payment if workers exercised their right to strike. JBS says it operates in compliance with labor and employment law and denies retaliating against workers.

Calling the planned walkout an unfair-labor-practice strike is more than semantics. Under the National Labor Relations Act, if the NLRB ultimately upholds some or all of the union’s charges, workers could have stronger protections against being permanently replaced than they would in a purely economic strike over wages and benefits.

Pandemic legacy and allegations involving immigrant workers

The conflict comes at a plant that became a national symbol of meatpacking’s dangers during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2020, Colorado health officials temporarily shut the Greeley facility after a fast-moving outbreak infected hundreds of employees and was linked to at least six worker deaths.

Federal safety regulators later cited Swift Beef Co., the JBS subsidiary operating the plant, for failing to protect workers from coronavirus hazards. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration assessed a fine of about $15,600—the statutory maximum for a serious violation at the time—a penalty worker advocates criticized as inadequate. In 2022, JBS reached a broader settlement with OSHA requiring infectious-disease preparedness plans at seven plants, including Greeley.

More recently, the plant has drawn scrutiny over its treatment of immigrant workers. UFCW Local 7 and a Denver-based public interest law firm have alleged that JBS and labor recruiters targeted French-speaking African and Haitian workers through social media, charging high fees for employer-controlled housing and transportation and using threats against their families abroad to keep them in place. The union has described it as “management-led human trafficking.” Attorneys have filed discrimination and harassment charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of some workers.

JBS has not publicly detailed its response to those specific allegations but has said it does not tolerate discrimination, harassment or human rights abuses. No criminal charges have been announced, and any government investigations would likely take months or years to resolve.

The Greeley workforce is heavily immigrant, with many employees holding refugee status, green cards or Temporary Protected Status. Labor advocates say that mix makes workers especially vulnerable in a high-risk industry that has historically depended on foreign-born labor.

What happens next

Labor historians and some advocacy outlets have described the planned walkout as potentially the largest strike by U.S. meatpacking workers since the 1985–86 Hormel strike in Austin, Minnesota. The stakes extend beyond the plant and its parent company: JBS is one of Weld County’s largest employers, and thousands of paychecks ripple through Greeley’s small businesses, schools and rental market.

For now, both sides say they are open to further talks, but neither has signaled a breakthrough is imminent. The NLRB’s investigation into the unfair-labor-practice charges will move on a separate track from any contract negotiations.

If no agreement is reached by Monday morning, knives and hooks at the Greeley plant could hang idle for the first time in years, and a group of workers who helped keep meat coolers filled during the pandemic will be testing how much leverage they have in a consolidated industry that rarely stops running.