Workers at JBS USA’s meatpacking plant took to the picket line Monday, with union employees braving temperatures in the teens in the first such strike at a U.S. meatpacking plant in decades.
The strike began at 5:30 a.m. Approximately 3,800 workers are employed at the facility at 800 N. Eighth Ave. along U.S. Highway 85. United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, which represents 22,000 workers in Colorado and Wyoming, has argued for better pay and working conditions. The union’s contract with JBS expired last July, and 99% of unionized workers voted in February to authorize a strike.
Union officials say that negotiations stalled over wages and the cost of protective equipment required for workers on the production line. According to UFCW Local 7, workers must purchase safety gear out of pocket, costing hundreds of dollars.
The union also contends that the company’s wage proposal — about 60 cents per hour in the first year of the contract — does not keep up with inflation. Union officials are seeking higher raises, better health care coverage and reimbursement for safety equipment.
“JBS workers absolutely deserve wage increases that keep pace with inflation, that support their health, that protect their retirement, and that allow the workers to work with dignity and respect. Instead, JBS has been charging many workers $1,100 or more in order to offset the Company’s expenses for life-saving equipment needed to ensure worker safety,” the union said. “JBS is continuing to propose wage increases of less than 2% per year on average, hardly enough to pay for the increased cost of living and insufficient to cover increases to healthcare premiums. For some UFCW represented plants across the country, employees who need family healthcare coverage were forced to spend approximately $0.22 of the $0.30 annual raise they received this year just to cover the rise in health care premiums.”
JBS counters that its latest offer is “strong” and consistent with a national union agreement.
“For eight months, JBS USA engaged in negotiations with UFCW Local 7 in Greeley. Despite our continued efforts to reach a fair and responsible agreement, Local 7 chose to end negotiations and cancel the contract we had in place,” the statement read.
“We stand by the offer we presented. It is strong, fair, and consistent with the historic national contract reached in 2025 in partnership with UFCW International—an agreement that has already delivered higher wages, a secure pension, and long‑term financial stability for team members at our other major facilities. UFCW Local 7 has refused to let team members vote on this offer.
“We do not believe a strike is in the best interest of our team members or their families. For any Greeley beef team members who do not wish to strike and want to continue working, we will ensure they have work available and are paid.”
JBS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Brazil-based JBS S.A., the world’s largest processor of beef and pork with more than $50 billion in annual sales. The Greeley plant processes 5,000 to 6,000 head of cattle each day and represents a major economic engine for Weld county, anchoring a regional cattle-processing supply chain in Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming.
JBS has begun shifting production from Greeley to other facilities around the country. The Greeley plant processes 5,000 to 6,000 head of cattle daily, a significant percentage of U.S. beef-processing capacity.
U.S. beef prices have hit record levels this year, amid lower cattle inventories, and the strike could raise prices further.
The last major strike at a U.S. meatpacking plant was in 1985-1986 at a Hormel Foods Corp. plant in Austin, Minnesota. Greeley workers last went on strike in 1980, when the plant was owned by Monfort Inc.
