First U.S. Slaughterhouse Walkout in 40 Years

On March 16, 2026, for the first time since the 1985 strike against Hormel^[1] in Austin, Minnesota, workers walked out at a U.S. meatpacking plant, this time in Greeley, Colorado, just north of Denver.

On February 4 this year, after eight months of negotiations with JBS Swift, the members of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 7 voted “yes” to authorize a strike.

The local was a hold-out following national negotiations by the UFCW with JBS, which signed a contract with 10 other locals in May 2025. But Local 7 said the wage package offered was inadequate given inflation, on-the-job hazards that were not addressed, and company harassment and intimidation of employees.

“JBS’s proposed wage increases barely keep up with the rising cost of the company’s healthcare plans,” the union said. “Workers at some JBS plants outside of Colorado, who received the same wage increase proposed for workers in Greeley, recently had more than two-thirds of their 2026 wage gains eaten up by increased healthcare premiums. JBS is refusing to protect workers in Greeley against these unconscionable changes.”

After local negotiations with JBS broke down on March 6, 2026, local president Kim Cordova said, “The goal of negotiations is never to go on strike, but when the company violates workers’ rights and ignores workers’ concerns about safety and health, the company gives workers no choice but to stand together in solidarity and show the company that they cannot be silenced.”

In the 10 days leading up to the strike, JBS pulled workers into a series of captive audience meetings to threaten them with discipline if they walked out and to encourage them to resign from the union. Union stewards were not allowed to attend the meetings, some of which took place one-on-one. In addition, JBS sent out a “poll” asking workers if they intended to work on March 16. The union called foul, saying these actions amounted to coercion and violated fair labor practice standards.

By early afternoon the first day of the walkout, 2,600 of the 3,800 workers at the plant had shown up on the picket line. Chants of “huelga” (Spanish for “strike”) and bilingual signs reflected the large immigrant component of the workforce, which has borne the brunt of abuses by JBS.

The company, which has a history of child labor law violations and exceptionally dangerous working conditions, currently faces a lawsuit by several Haitian workers. The plaintiffs say they were lured by JBS to work in Greeley with promises of good pay, housing, and food while they settled in, and no English language requirement. Instead, the suit alleges, they have faced discrimination and intimidation while being forced to live in abominable housing and have suffered lacerations, amputations, severe burns, and musculoskeletal injuries on the job.

JBS Swift, a wholly owned subsidiary of Brazil-based JBS S.A.,^[2] operates nine U.S. facilities that employ more than 37,000 people. The parent company’s website claims that JBS is the “#1 global beef producer.” The Greeley plant handles about 8 percent of the beef processed in the United States.

JBS has assured the public that the strike will not impact the price of beef at the supermarket; it says it has already farmed out the work to slaughterhouses in Nebraska and Texas.

In the six weeks following the strike vote, UFCW Local 7 began to prepare the groundwork for the walkout, signing up union members to receive benefits and reaching out for support.

On February 18, Colorado AFL-CIO president Bryant Preston wrote to the JBS CEO, “You siphon millions into the pockets of your executives and investors while your employees risk and often lose their lives working with extremely dangerous equipment.”  

The Greeley community is already stepping up to support the strikers, bringing snacks and hand warmers to the picket line. The union has created a website to accept donations to the strike fund.

The article about the first day of the walkout that follows is from the Denver Post. We are publishing it for the information of our readers. The headline, subhead, photos, and text that follow are from the original.

— World-Outlook editors

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JBS strike in Greeley begins with thousands of workers walking off job

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 represents nearly 4,000 workers at Colorado meatpacking plant

By Sam Tabachnik and Chris Bolin

stabachnik@denverpost.com | The Denver Post; cbolin@greeleytribune.com

March 16, 2026, at 6:38 AM MDT | UPDATED: March 16, 2026, at 5:44 PM MDT

GREELEY — Thousands of workers at the JBS meatpacking plant walked off the job Monday morning [March 16], beginning a two-week strike as they seek a new contract with higher pay and better workplace protections.

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, the union representing 3,800 JBS workers in Greeley, has been negotiating for months with the company but has been unable to secure a deal. Union officials say JBS has refused to budge from minimal wage increases and committed unfair labor practices during negotiations.

JBS, in turn, has called the union’s contention that the company sought the labor dispute “frankly absurd,” saying the company made “meaningful movement” on economic and other issues throughout the process. The union, JBS officials said, abruptly walked away from the negotiating table without responding to their updated offer.

The strike marks the first walkout at an American meatpacking plant in four decades. The Greeley facility processes as much as 8% of the beef in the country, making it one of the largest plants in the U.S.

“JBS practiced intimidation and they push fear on every employee,” said Anthony Martinez, a UFCW Local 7 representative who was helping lead chants on the picket line Monday. “They threaten us with our jobs at all costs. No baño (bathroom) breaks, write-ups for being late, the misuse of knives. They buy us the less expensive knife and then complain about the performance. If we only have a certain amount of people, they don’t slow down the chain. It’s still the same and they still complain.”

Union officials say JBS has been offering less than 2% in annual wage increases and putting all the risk of rising health care costs on workers. Kim Cordova, the union’s president, said JBS refused to meet with workers over the weekend.

“Make no mistake, JBS chose this strike in an effort to lower worker wages nationwide, just as the company has squeezed entire communities of ranchers across this country,” Cordova said in a statement early Monday.^[3]

JBS officials, in a statement Monday, said many laborers chose to report for work rather than participate in the strike — and the company said it expects that number to increase in the coming days. The company denied any labor law violations and said its offer was fair.

“Our team members want stability, they want to support their families, and they deserved the opportunity to vote on the company’s historic offer — an opportunity the union leadership has denied them,” JBS officials said.

Martinez acknowledged that some employees were still working Monday.

“We lost a percentage because some people are just not that educated on it just yet,” he said. “But soon, by later today and tomorrow, we’ll have that 99.9% out here striking.”

Chants and picket signs

Ninety-nine percent of unionized members in Greeley voted last month to authorize the strike. Workers told The Denver Post after the vote that they routinely get injured on the job and lack adequate medical treatment. Wages, meanwhile, have not kept up with rising costs, they say.

It’s the first strike at a U.S. slaughterhouse since workers walked out at a Hormel plant in Minnesota in 1985, Cordova said. That strike lasted more than a year and included violent confrontations between police and protesters, according to the Minnesota Historical Society.

On Monday, hundreds of striking employees gathered outside the plant in Greeley before dawn, wearing signs around their necks — some in English, some in Spanish — that said, in part, “Please do not patronize JBS.” They chanted slogans including: “What do we want? Contract! When do we want it? Now!” and “Get up, get down. Greeley is a union town.”

Some yelled “huelga!” — Spanish for “strike.”

By early afternoon, more than 2,600 JBS workers showed up at the picket line and others were expected to check in over coming days, said Claire Poundstone, an attorney for the UFCW Local 7.

“I’ve seen every single shift out here,” said Garret Rhodes, who has worked at JBS for two-and-a-half years. “A shift, B shift, C shift. It’s crazy. This is close to, if not, every single department.”

Workers lined the streets surrounding the JBS plant, holding signs and chatting with their coworkers in dozens of different languages. JBS has long relied on — and recruited — immigrants and refugees who left war-torn countries seeking a better life in the United States. For many, the vote to strike represented their first-ever act of democracy.

Fernando Pitone, who has worked at the plant since June, said he was acting in solidarity with all of his co-workers.

“We’re out here standing for what we believe is being neglected,” Pitone said.

Dani Martinez, who has worked for JBS on and off for four years, said she felt compelled to buy a knife sharpener out of her own pocket because the company wouldn’t get one for her. The production line runs so fast, she said, that workers are forced to choose between keeping up and risking contaminating the beef, or slowing down and risking admonishment from supervisors.

“Either way, you get written up,” she said. “You just can’t win.”

JBS officials have said they plan to shift production to facilities in other states with more capacity while the Greeley workers strike. Experts say they don’t expect major increases in beef prices at the grocery store, but that JBS will likely want a resolution to the stoppage sooner rather than later.

Support for the strikers

The strike drew supporters who backed the union’s push for a new contract. Greeley city council members, congressional candidates and the state’s attorney general, Phil Weiser, all made appearances at the picket line. Other Colorado Democrats, such as Sen. John Hickenlooper, expressed their public support for the workers.

“I’m glad that folks are unified on this front to make sure that they get the wages they deserve,” said State Rep. Manny Rutinel, a Commerce City Democrat running to unseat U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans in the 8th Congressional District, which includes Greeley. “These are the folks that put food on the table for folks across not just Greeley and Colorado, but the entire nation. And they deserve to have the working conditions that allow them to come back home safely.”

Weiser, who’s also running for governor, said it’s important to stand up for those who risked their health during the pandemic to make sure Americans had food in the grocery stores.

“The company needs to step up with a fair offer,” he said.

Complaints about poor working conditions

Workers for years have complained about poor working conditions at the Greeley plant.

The U.S. Department of Labor last year found JBS relied for years on migrant children to work in its slaughterhouses.

Children as young as 13 were hired through an outside sanitation company and worked overnight cleaning shifts at slaughterhouses in Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska, federal investigators found. Their jobs included cleaning dangerous powered equipment, labor officials said.

The company agreed to pay $4 million to assist individuals and communities affected by unlawful child labor practices.

In 2024, UFCW Local 7 called for federal, state and local law enforcement and regulatory bodies to hold the company accountable for substandard labor practices.

The union accused the company of human trafficking via social media; charging workers to live in squalid conditions; threatening and intimidating workers and their families; operating with dangerously high production line speeds; and withholding mail from workers.

Three Haitian workers in December sued JBS in federal court, alleging their experience in Colorado has been marked by injuries, discrimination and inhospitable living conditions.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

NOTES

[1] In 1975, Hormel announced it would be building a new facility to replace its Austin, MN, meatpacking plant. To “help” the employer with the cost of construction, Local P-9 of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) agreed to major contract concessions. But after the new plant opened in 1982, employees — now working under a wage freeze — saw an increase in injuries due to conditions in the workplace and, in 1984, an additional pay cut.

In August 1985, the local authorized strike action against the company and Hormel was forced to shut the plant down. Striking employees mobilized Hormel retirees and community members to attend rallies and show their support. P-9ers staged protest activities including roving picket lines and rallies, building solidarity across the region. As the strike picked up momentum, it gained national attention, leading to a widely publicized boycott of Hormel products.

Hormel reopened the Austin plant on January 13, 1986. Strikers turned out in the hundreds, blocking access to the plant for a week. On January 21, the Minnesota governor deployed the National Guard to protect the strikebreakers; some 500 union members and a similar number of non-union new hires crossed the picket lines.

Six months later, the national UFCW ordered Local P-9 to end the strike; when local officials refused, the UFCW forced the local into receivership. In September 1986, the new local leadership agreed to a concession contract with Hormel.

The breaking of the strike was a major blow to organized labor, already reeling from the defeats of air traffic controllers during the 1981 PATCO strike and Arizona copper miners in 1983 and a wave of concession contracts.

[2] An executive order signed by President Donald Trump on November 20, 2025, removed punishing 40% tariffs on Brazilian beef, originally imposed in July 2025 to influence the prosecution of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. The tariffs were ostensibly removed to help alleviate the high price of beef in supermarkets, but also helped JBS Swift’s parent company.

[3] Despite high retail prices at the supermarket, beef ranchers in the U.S. are being squeezed by extreme “market consolidation.” A monopoly by four big meatpackers (JBS, National Beef, Cargill, and Tyson) that package over 80% of U.S. beef exerts leverage to drive down the prices paid to producers. In addition, family ranchers today face ever-higher production costs, mounting pressure from cheap beef imported from Brazil and Argentina, and a historic, record-low supply of cattle due to a drought-induced liquidation of herds across the country.

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