Thousands Strike at Colorado JBS Beef Plant in Rare U.S. Walkout, Raising Price Concerns

The chants started before dawn, in English and Spanish, as workers in heavy coats and knit caps lined the road outside the JBS Swift Beef plant in Greeley, Colorado.

“Huelga! Strike!” they shouted, waving hand-lettered signs that read “Don’t Buy JBS” and “Respect the Workers” at tractor-trailers pulling up to one of the country’s largest beef slaughterhouses.

By sunrise Monday, March 16, roughly 3,800 unionized employees had walked off the job at the sprawling facility about 50 miles northeast of Denver, launching what labor experts say is the first major U.S. beef-packing strike since the Hormel dispute in Minnesota more than 40 years ago.

The walkout at JBS USA’s flagship beef plant — which accounts for an estimated 6% of the nation’s beef slaughter capacity — is the latest sign of unrest in a meat industry still grappling with the legacy of COVID-19, deep reliance on immigrant labor and mounting scrutiny over food prices.

Workers represented by United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 7 say they are striking over wages, health and safety conditions, and benefits after contract talks broke down following months of bargaining. The previous agreement expired in July 2025; employees have been working under an extension ever since.

“We’re the ones that help them get all their profit, but they don’t really value their workers,” said union steward Leticia Avalos, who has worked at the plant for more than two decades. “We just want to be treated with dignity.”

Company officials say they have offered a “historic” package that mirrors a 2025 national agreement JBS reached with UFCW locals in other states and that union leaders in Greeley are denying workers a chance to vote on it.

“Our team members want stability,” JBS spokesperson Nikki Richardson said in a statement. “They deserved the opportunity to vote on the company’s historic offer — an opportunity the union leadership has denied them.”

A local walkout with national stakes

The JBS plant in Greeley is one of 10 major beef facilities the company operates in the United States and is among the largest in the country. Industry estimates put its capacity at about 27,000 head of cattle a day, roughly 6% of national slaughter volume.

Any prolonged disruption there comes at a delicate time for the beef supply chain. The U.S. cattle herd has shrunk to its lowest level in roughly 75 years, according to federal data, after drought and high feed costs pushed ranchers to cull animals. At the same time, prices for popular cuts are at or near record highs; the average retail price of 100% ground chuck has more than doubled over the past two decades.

“The longer [cattle] sit in a holding pattern, the more expensive they become to feed,” said Jennifer Martin, an associate professor of meat science at Colorado State University. “For consumers, it means that prices will likely go up if slaughter capacity is constrained for a meaningful period of time.”

In anticipation of the strike, JBS said last week it had begun redirecting cattle and shifting production to other plants to maintain supply to customers. On the first day of the walkout, Richardson said “many team members” reported to work in Greeley and that those who did so would be paid. Smoke from parts of the facility was visible Monday morning, but the company did not provide specific production figures.

Union officials and workers on the picket line said operations were sharply reduced and that the strike was intended to last at least two weeks, with the possibility of extension if no agreement is reached.

Inside the contract dispute

The standoff in Greeley centers on a proposed three-year deal that would raise hourly base pay by 60 cents in the first year and 30 cents in each of the next two years. Union leaders argue those increases amount to less than 2% annually and fail to keep pace with inflation and the soaring cost of housing and essentials on Colorado’s Front Range.

“These workers do some of the most difficult and dangerous jobs in the country,” said Kim Cordova, president of UFCW Local 7. “When the company violates workers’ rights and ignores workers’ concerns about safety and health, workers have no choice but to stand together.”

JBS counters that wages at the Greeley beef plant have risen roughly 46% since 2019, which it says is well above the about 25% inflation rate along the Front Range during that period. Company representatives say the offer includes competitive wages, secure pensions and long-term stability.

Beyond pay, workers say the dispute is driven by what happens inside the frigid, high-speed kill and fabrication rooms where thousands of cattle are processed daily.

Several employees described increases in line speed — one veteran worker said her area went from handling about 390 cattle per hour to roughly 420 — paired with chronic staffing shortages and malfunctioning equipment that leave them scrambling to keep up.

“If you don’t have sharp enough equipment to do your job, it becomes a safety hazard,” said “Olga,” a 24-year employee who asked that her last name be withheld, citing fear of retaliation. “It’s been hard to see how our dignity keeps getting sacrificed as workers more and more.”

Workers also complain of strict discipline around bathroom breaks despite the time required to remove and put back on layers of protective gear, including steel-mesh aprons, arm guards and cut-resistant gloves. Union officials say some employees have been written up if more than two carcasses pass by their station while they are off the line.

Another flashpoint is who pays for personal protective equipment. Local 7 says some workers have been charged $1,100 or more to offset the cost of company-provided gear, an expense they argue should be fully borne by the employer given the hazards of the work.

JBS says it complies with federal and state safety laws and has invested heavily in protective measures, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic.

A plant scarred by the pandemic

The Greeley facility was an early epicenter of coronavirus outbreaks in 2020. Hundreds of workers were infected and several died, prompting temporary closure of the plant and national attention to conditions in meatpacking.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration later cited JBS for failing to protect employees from COVID-19 hazards at the Greeley plant under the agency’s general duty clause. In 2022, the company reached a settlement with OSHA that required it to develop infectious-disease preparedness and response plans at seven facilities, including Greeley, and pay civil penalties.

For many on the picket line this week, those memories are still raw and shape how they view current safety assurances.

“During COVID, people went to work sick because they were scared to lose their jobs. They were scared to lose their homes,” Cordova said. “Those issues didn’t just disappear.”

Immigrant labor at the center

The workforce at JBS Greeley is largely made up of immigrants and refugees. Union leaders say at least 57 languages are spoken inside the plant, from Spanish and Haitian Creole to Somali and Karen. Many employees are the primary breadwinners for extended families.

Advocates and Local 7 officials say that mix has long made workers vulnerable to exploitation, particularly in the current political climate of heightened immigration enforcement and deportation fears.

“They use our people because they think we’re not going to speak up,” Avalos said. “Now we’re showing them that we can.”

In recent years, the union has accused JBS of mistreating immigrant workers through recruitment and housing practices, including allegations of overcrowded company-arranged housing and improper deductions from paychecks. The company has denied those claims. Some grievances and at least one unfair labor practice charge related to alleged retaliation are pending before the National Labor Relations Board.

JBS maintains that it follows all applicable labor and employment laws and has a robust compliance program.

Global giant, local fault line

The strike adds another complication for JBS S.A., the Brazil-based parent company that has grown into the world’s largest meat processor through a wave of acquisitions, including its 2007 purchase of Greeley-based Swift & Co. JBS listed its shares on the New York Stock Exchange last year after facing opposition from environmental and human-rights groups over its record on Amazon deforestation and past corruption scandals in Brazil.

At the same time, U.S. packers have been under political pressure over high meat prices and market concentration. President Donald Trump, who returned to office in 2025, has accused foreign-owned meat companies of “ripping off” American ranchers and consumers and has imposed tariffs on Brazilian beef. His administration has urged the Department of Justice to intensify investigations into possible price-fixing and anticompetitive behavior in the meat sector.

Those broader fights rarely come up on the picket line outside the Greeley plant, where workers talk more about rent, injuries and the strain of working on the line. But the outcome of their strike could reverberate far beyond Weld County.

If Local 7 secures a richer deal than the 2025 national pattern, it could embolden workers at other JBS plants and reshape wage expectations across an industry that has relied for decades on low pay and high turnover. If JBS holds the line, the strike could echo the Hormel dispute of the mid-1980s, when replacement workers and a divided community blunted a high-profile labor push and ushered in a new era of concessionary contracts in meatpacking.

For now, negotiators on both sides are under pressure to find a resolution before cattle back up in feedlots and families on Greeley’s east side run through savings.

“We don’t want to hurt our community,” Cordova said. “But we also know that if the company doesn’t move, then we’re gonna have to move them.”

On the roadside, as another truck rumbled past, Avalos stamped her feet against the cold and tightened her scarf.

“We’re not asking for something crazy,” she said. “We just want to go to work, be safe and be able to live.”