Nearly 3,800 workers strike at Colorado JBS beef plant in rare U.S. slaughterhouse walkout

The kill line at one of the nation’s largest beef plants was quiet before sunrise on March 16.

Where workers at the JBS Swift Beef Co. facility in Greeley, Colorado, normally file past metal detectors and onto a floor that can process roughly 6,000 head of cattle a day, thousands instead gathered outside in heavy coats and union hoodies. They beat on upside-down buckets, waved hand-lettered signs in Spanish and Haitian Creole and chanted a word rarely heard at a U.S. slaughterhouse in decades: “Huelga” — strike.

“We give everything to this plant, but we can’t even afford the meat we cut,” said Jose Martinez, a cutter who has worked at the plant for eight years. “We just want a fair contract and a safe place to work.”

Nearly 3,800 unionized workers at the Greeley beef plant walked off the job that morning, launching an unfair labor practice strike that was still in its third week as of Friday. Labor historians say it is the first sustained walkout at a U.S. slaughterhouse since the Hormel strike in Austin, Minnesota, in 1985.

The stoppage has disrupted operations at a facility that accounts for about 5% of U.S. beef-processing capacity and highlighted long-simmering tensions over wages, safety and the treatment of immigrant workers in one of the country’s most dangerous industries.

A rare showdown in a critical plant

The Greeley facility, owned by JBS USA, the North American arm of Brazilian meatpacking giant JBS, employs roughly 4,000 people in a city of about 110,000. Company and academic estimates say the plant can slaughter and process between 5,400 and 6,000 cattle per day, making it one of the largest beef plants in the United States.

Workers there are represented by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, the largest private-sector union in Colorado and Wyoming. Union leaders say approximately 3,800 members are participating in the strike.

“This is the first time in about 40 years that workers at a major beef slaughter plant have taken this kind of action,” said Kim Cordova, president of Local 7. “These are predominantly immigrant and refugee workers who have been told to keep their heads down for decades. They are saying, ‘Enough.’”

JBS said in a written statement that it had bargained “in good faith for months” and presented employees with “a strong, fair and comprehensive offer that includes wage increases, quality health benefits and a secure retirement,” consistent with contracts accepted at other JBS plants.

The company said the Greeley facility is operating at “limited capacity” and that it has shifted production to other locations to maintain supply to customers. It denied violating labor law, saying it is “in full compliance with all federal and state employment regulations.”

Wages, health care and safety at issue

At the heart of the dispute is a contract that expired last summer. Local 7 says JBS proposed average annual wage increases of less than 2%, which union officials argue would trail Colorado’s recent inflation rates of roughly 3% to 4% and fail to keep up with rising housing, food and transportation costs.

Colorado’s statewide minimum wage rose to $15.16 an hour this year, and Denver’s local minimum is $19.29. JBS’s pay scales at Greeley are higher than those floors, but many workers say those wages are not enough given the risks and pace of the job.

“People see high beef prices and think the workers must be doing well,” said Maria Gomez, who works in packing. “But our rent goes up, our groceries go up and now our health care costs are going up too.”

Union leaders say JBS’s offer would shift more of the burden of rising health insurance costs onto employees, eroding any nominal pay increases. The company has not publicly detailed its proposed contribution changes.

Workers and their advocates also point to the plant’s safety record and line speeds. Beef slaughter and processing remain among the country’s most injury-prone jobs, federal data show, involving repetitive cutting, heavy lifting and close quarters.

A federal lawsuit filed last year alleges that JBS recruited about 1,200 Haitian refugees to work at the Greeley plant starting in 2023 and then assigned most of them to a single shift where chain speeds were raised from roughly 300 to about 370 cattle per hour. The complaint claims that the faster line caused more injuries and amounted to discrimination based on national origin. JBS has denied discriminating against Haitian workers.

“On a fast line, you’re one mistake away from cutting yourself or someone else,” said one Haitian worker, who asked not to be named due to his immigration status. “They tell you to go faster, faster. If you complain, they say there are many people who want your job.”

Local 7 also accuses JBS of charging workers for replacement personal protective equipment, including some specialized gear that union representatives say can cost hundreds of dollars and be deducted from paychecks. Cordova has called those alleged charges “unconscionable.” JBS has not publicly addressed the specifics of the PPE allegations.

A plant shaped by past crises

The Greeley facility has been under scrutiny before.

In 2020, the plant experienced one of Colorado’s deadliest workplace outbreaks of COVID-19. State health officials reported at least 291 confirmed infections among employees and six deaths. The plant temporarily closed before reopening with new safety protocols.

In 2023, a federal investigation found that Packers Sanitation Services Inc., a contractor used by JBS, had illegally employed minors to clean meatpacking plants, including Greeley, on overnight shifts. The contractor agreed to pay $1.5 million in penalties nationwide. JBS later ended its contracts with that company and created an in-house sanitation unit.

As part of a 2025 agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor, JBS committed $4 million to a program aimed at preventing child labor in its supply chain, with a focus on several communities including Greeley.

Earlier, in a case resolved in 2021, JBS agreed to pay up to $5.5 million to settle allegations that it discriminated against Muslim, Somali and Black workers at the Greeley plant over requests for prayer breaks and other issues. The company did not admit wrongdoing.

Local 7 leaders say that history, combined with the deadly pandemic outbreak, has fueled distrust among current employees.

Unfair labor practice claims raise stakes

The union is framing the walkout as an unfair labor practice strike, not solely an economic one. In filings with the National Labor Relations Board, Local 7 alleges that JBS bargained in bad faith, retaliated against union supporters, unilaterally changed working conditions and threatened to withhold bonuses and pension contributions if employees went on strike.

Cordova said some bargaining committee members were disciplined or terminated for their union roles. “You cannot intimidate workers out of exercising their rights,” she said.

If the NLRB eventually upholds the unfair labor practice allegations, strikers could be entitled to reinstatement and back pay. If the board does not, the walkout could be treated as an economic strike, giving the company more leeway to permanently replace workers.

JBS has denied the union’s charges and said it is cooperating with federal investigators.

The dispute has also drawn in anti-union groups. The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation said it has distributed information to Greeley employees about their right to resign from the union and avoid internal fines for not honoring strike calls. The group has highlighted a separate ongoing federal case accusing Local 7 of unlawfully disciplining some grocery workers after an earlier strike; the union has defended its practices in that matter.

Potential ripple effects for beef and beyond

With U.S. beef prices already at or near record highs — ground beef averages are up about 15% from a year ago, according to federal data — the walkout has raised questions about whether the strike could push prices even higher.

Industry analysts say it is too soon to see a clear impact at supermarket meat counters. JBS’s ability to redirect cattle to other plants and run Greeley on a reduced schedule has so far kept beef supplies flowing. But the Greeley plant’s share of national capacity, combined with recent cuts at other large beef operations, could tighten the market if the strike drags on for weeks or months.

“The U.S. beef sector was already operating with less slack,” said one agricultural economist at Colorado State University. “Any prolonged disruption at a plant of this size adds to the pressure.”

In Greeley, the immediate pressure is on the workers and their families. Strikers are receiving limited strike pay from the union and relying on food pantries, churches and mutual aid funds to cover rent and groceries. Local businesses near the plant report fewer lunchtime customers.

“We’re scared,” said Gomez, the packing worker. “But we’re more scared of going back in there with no protections and no respect.”

Negotiations between JBS and UFCW Local 7 had not produced a new agreement by late March. Both sides say they are willing to talk, but neither has signaled a major shift in position.

Whatever the outcome, labor experts say the Greeley walkout has already sent a rare message from inside an industry built on speed, secrecy and a largely invisible workforce.

“For decades, meatpacking has relied on people you don’t see and don’t hear, doing some of the hardest work in America,” the CSU economist said. “This strike has made them visible, at least for a while, and it forces the public to confront what it takes to put beef on the table.”