At 5:30 a.m. Monday, nearly 3,800 workers at the JBS beef plant in Greeley will walk off the job in what will be the first meatpacking strike in the United States since 1985. The central question: whether the workers chose it, or their union did.
JBS says the union made the call. The company told workers it presented a contract consistent with a 2025 national agreement already accepted at 14 other JBS plants — then the union refused to put it to a vote. “UFCW Local 7 has refused to let team members vote on this offer,” JBS spokeswoman Nikki Richardson said in a written statement. JBS says base hourly wages at the Greeley plant have increased 46% since 2019. Front Range cumulative inflation over the same period was 25%.
UFCW Local 7 president Kim Cordova disputes the comparison. Workers at other plants that accepted the national contract saw healthcare premiums consume more than two-thirds of their 2026 wage gains, according to the union’s March 6 press release. Cordova put the financial gap between the two sides at roughly $30,000 per week for the entire plant over the life of the agreement. JBS is the world’s largest protein producer. The Greeley plant is its U.S. flagship.
The union filed multiple unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging regressive bargaining, threats to withhold a proposed bonus and lump-sum pension payment if workers struck, and retaliation against bargaining committee members. Those charges remain under NLRB investigation. Separately, the NLRB issued a complaint this week against the same union — UFCW Local 7 — for fining King Soopers workers who resigned their union membership and returned to work during a 2025 strike. That case goes before an administrative law judge.
The Greeley plant employs roughly 3,800 workers and is the largest employer in Weld County. Workers on the floor handle stunned cattle through slaughter, hide removal, carcass trimming, and distribution preparation. At least 57 languages are spoken among the workforce, which is largely immigrant. A Department of Labor investigation found that a JBS cleaning contractor employed children as young as 13 at the Greeley facility and other plants. That investigation concluded in 2023.
JBS halted production at the plant this week and redirected cattle to facilities in other states. The Colorado Cattlemen’s Association confirmed ranchers are already moving finished cattle to alternate plants. The Greeley facility processes between 5,000 and 6,000 head of cattle daily — approximately 8% of the national kill rate. Wholesale Choice beef cutout prices hit $396.70 per hundredweight on Wednesday. That figure is up 10.7% since January 1. How long the plant stays idle determines whether consumers see it at the counter.
The last strike at a U.S. meatpacking plant was in 1985, when workers walked out at Hormel Foods in Minnesota. The last strike in Colorado was in 1980 — at the Monfort Packing Plant in Greeley, the same facility JBS now operates.
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