United JBS meatpackers win contract!

Striking workers outside JBS plant in March 2026.

Denver — There was 99% unity of 3,800 workers to walk out on March 16 and strike for three weeks against the JBS beef packing plant in Greeley, Colorado. The threat of a fourth week brought the union and management back to the negotiating table and resulted in a new contract on April 13 with raises and company paid safety equipment.

The plant is one of the largest in an industry which has not had a strike in over 40 years. This was the first strike at the JBS beef plant. The strike resulted from eight months of unproductive negotiations. This courageous job action was led by a majority migrant workforce facing fierce federal government repression against immigrants.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 announced that the contract, which needs to be ratified by the workers, gives workers $1.50 per hour pay increases by April 2027 and a $750 bonus with the ratification. Workers will also receive a one-time payment of $500 in April 2027.

In the past decades the meat packing industries have moved out of the major U.S. cities into small, isolated farming and fracking towns. They hire immigrants whose immigration status is precarious and in the past undocumented and have even used illegal child labor for which JBS was fined. 

The majority of workers are documented now, but Haitians with Temporary Protected Status never know from day to day if they will be detained and/or deported, as their TPS, has been unpredictably revoked by the Trump administration and reinstated more recently by a court.

Meat cutting plants have very high levels of worker injuries. The conditions are cold and wet, and the line speeds are fast. Exposure to animal blood, feces and diseases are a threat to worker health. According to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, 30 out of 100 workers are injured in a year.

Workers complained of low wages and minimal raises and at the same time were charged by JBS as much as $1,100 for safety equipment to protect themselves or to replace worn equipment. The new contract states that these costs are to be paid by the company.