Blood on the Line: 3,800 Meatpackers Walk Off the Job in First Beef Plant Strike in 40 Years

At 5:30 a.m. on Monday, March 16, in 20-degree predawn cold, approximately 3,800 workers walked out of the Swift Beef Co. plant in Greeley, Colorado — a facility that processes up to 6,000 cattle per day and accounts for roughly 6 to 8 percent of America's total beef slaughter capacity [1]. Some carried blankets. Others carried signs. All of them carried decades of grievance.

It is the first strike at a U.S. beef slaughterhouse in more than 40 years [2].

The walkout, organized by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 after 99 percent of members voted to authorize it, follows eight months of failed contract negotiations with JBS USA, the largest meatpacking company in the United States and a subsidiary of Brazilian conglomerate JBS S.A. [3]. The union has declared a two-week unfair labor practices strike, alleging that JBS retaliated against workers, attempted to intimidate employees into quitting the union in one-on-one meetings, and threatened to withhold bonuses and pension payments from those who chose to strike [4].

"This is an historic showing of worker power," said Kim Cordova, president of UFCW Local 7 [5].

The Economics of a 60-Cent Raise

The core dispute is money — but not just wages.

According to the union, JBS offered a 60-cent-per-hour raise in the first year of a new contract, followed by 30-cent annual increases thereafter [3]. On paper, the company frames this as "strong, fair and consistent" with a national agreement reached in 2025, according to JBS spokesperson Nikki Richardson [3].

But the union tells a different story. After accounting for a 22-cent-per-hour increase in healthcare cost-sharing shifted onto workers, the effective first-year raise drops to roughly 38 cents — or about 8 cents per hour net once all benefit changes are factored in [3]. In a state where housing costs and inflation have far outpaced national averages, UFCW Local 7 argues that JBS's offer amounts to less than 2 percent annually in average wage increases [6].

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (CES3231170003)

Data as of Mar 16, 2026CSV

The Bureau of Labor Statistics data reveals a telling pattern: average hourly earnings in the animal slaughter industry have barely budged over the past four years, hovering between $20 and $23 per hour while the cost of living has surged. Workers describe a workforce where many support families both in Colorado and in home countries including Somalia and Eritrea [7].

Meanwhile, JBS is not struggling. The company reported net sales of $19.5 billion in the first quarter of 2025 alone — an 8.5 percent year-over-year increase — with adjusted EBITDA rising 17.7 percent to $1.5 billion [8]. For the trailing twelve months ending September 2025, JBS posted revenue of $83.1 billion globally [9].

"Our Dignity Keeps Getting Sacrificed"

Beyond wages, the Greeley walkout has exposed conditions that workers say have deteriorated sharply in recent years.

The most concrete flashpoint is line speed. According to multiple worker accounts and union officials, JBS increased production rates at the Greeley plant from 390 to 420 animals per hour [7] [3]. In an industry where workers perform the same cutting motions thousands of times per shift — trimming, deboning, slicing — every additional animal per hour compounds the cumulative physical toll.

"It's quick motion all day, every day. One after another after another," said Deborah Rodarte, a beef trimmer at the plant [3].

A USDA-commissioned study released in January 2025 found that 81 percent of poultry workers and 46 percent of pork workers face increased risk of musculoskeletal disorders, with rates of carpal tunnel syndrome in the industry running seven times the national average [10]. OSHA data shows that meatpacking workers suffer serious injuries at double the rate of workers in other industries, with an average of 27 workers per day experiencing amputation or hospitalization across the sector [11].

Workers at the Greeley plant also report that knife-grinding equipment was out of service for three weeks, creating direct safety hazards. Olga, a 24-year veteran who works in the knife shop, told the Colorado Times Recorder: "If you don't have sharp enough equipment to do your job, it becomes a safety hazard." She added: "It's been hard to just see how our dignity keeps getting sacrificed" [7].

The union says workers are charged up to $1,100 for mandatory protective gear — helmets, wire-mesh jackets, cut-resistant gloves — and that bathroom breaks are limited to two per shift, with workers required to fully remove their safety equipment each time [7].

The Four Kings of Beef

The Greeley strike cannot be understood in isolation. It is a product of an industry that has consolidated to a degree that would have been unrecognizable a generation ago.

Four corporations — JBS, Tyson Foods, Cargill, and National Beef — now control approximately 85 percent of all U.S. beef slaughter [12]. This concentration, which accelerated after the meatpacking industry deliberately relocated from unionized urban centers to rural communities beginning in the 1970s, has given these companies extraordinary leverage over both workers and the cattle ranchers who supply them [3].

Source: FRED / Bureau of Labor Statistics (APU0000703112)

Data as of Mar 16, 2026CSV

The consumer impact is already visible. Beef prices have risen 15.2 percent over the past year, driven by the smallest U.S. cattle herd in 75 years [13]. FRED data shows ground beef prices climbing from roughly $4.80 per pound in early 2023 to $6.74 in February 2026 — a 40 percent increase in three years. An extended shutdown of a plant processing 6 to 8 percent of national capacity could push prices even higher, particularly in Colorado and neighboring states where feedlots face mounting costs from delayed processing [13].

JBS has said it will operate two shifts at the plant during the strike and temporarily shift production to other facilities [1]. But industry analysts note that the U.S. beef supply chain is already running tight, and absorbing the output of one of the nation's largest plants is not straightforward.

A Company With a Record

JBS's labor practices at Greeley exist against a backdrop of corporate scandal that few American consumers are aware of.

The company's controlling family, the Batista brothers of Brazil, pleaded guilty to over 1,500 acts of criminal bribery in their home country and paid a $3.2 billion fine — the largest in Brazilian history [14]. In the United States, their holding company J&F Investimentos paid $256 million to settle Foreign Corrupt Practices Act charges related to using bribery proceeds to expand U.S. operations [15]. JBS subsidiary Pilgrim's Pride pleaded guilty to chicken price-fixing in 2020, paying $110 million [14]. And in 2025, JBS agreed to an $83 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit accusing the Big Four meatpackers of conspiring to inflate beef prices [16].

Despite this record, JBS has continued to expand its U.S. footprint. The SEC approved a JBS listing on the New York Stock Exchange following the confirmation of a Trump-appointed SEC nominee, and Pilgrim's Pride donated $5 million to the Trump inauguration [7]. The union has noted the political dimensions of this relationship without making it a formal part of their demands.

Ghost of the Hormel Strike

The last time American meatpacking workers struck a beef plant was 1985, when 1,500 members of UFCW Local P-9 walked out of a Hormel facility in Austin, Minnesota over wage cuts and unsafe conditions [17]. That strike lasted over a year, ended with the National Guard escorting replacement workers through picket lines, and concluded in defeat for the union — only about 20 percent of strikers ever got their jobs back [17].

The Hormel strike became a cautionary tale for organized labor and the subject of Barbara Kopple's Academy Award-winning 1990 documentary American Dream. For four decades, it effectively froze meatpacking labor action. No major beef plant walkout followed — until now.

The differences between 1985 and 2026 are significant. The Greeley workforce is far more diverse — 57 languages are spoken at the plant [3] — and the union has been careful to frame the action as an unfair labor practices strike rather than a pure economic strike. This legal distinction matters: under federal labor law, workers engaged in an unfair labor practices strike have stronger protections against permanent replacement [4].

The union has also filed multiple complaints with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that JBS retaliated against bargaining committee members and made unilateral changes to working conditions without proper consultation [4]. Union general counsel Matt Shechter accused the company of conducting one-on-one meetings designed to pressure workers into abandoning the union [4].

The Broader Labor Context

The Greeley walkout arrives at a moment of renewed labor militancy across American industries. From the UAW's 2023 stand-up strike against the Big Three automakers to the Hollywood writers' and actors' strikes of the same year, workers have increasingly demonstrated a willingness to walk off the job that had been largely absent from American economic life since the Reagan era.

But meatpacking occupies a unique and especially fraught position in this landscape. The workforce is disproportionately composed of immigrants and refugees — people who, as the union has noted, are particularly vulnerable to employer pressure [7]. The work itself is among the most physically punishing in American industry. And the consolidation of the sector means that workers have few alternative employers if they lose their current jobs.

Colorado's Democratic senators John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet have offered support to the strikers [7]. JBS, for its part, has maintained that any employee who does not wish to strike will have work and be paid [1].

What Comes Next

The union has announced the strike will last two weeks but has left open the possibility of extension [6]. If the walkout holds — and with 99 percent authorization, defections seem unlikely in the short term — the pressure will mount on JBS to return to the bargaining table with a substantively different offer.

The stakes extend well beyond Greeley. A successful strike outcome could embolden meatpacking workers at other plants operated by the Big Four, potentially reshaping labor dynamics across an industry that has held wages effectively flat for years while generating billions in corporate profit. A failed strike, as in 1985, could set back organizing efforts for another generation.

For now, 3,800 workers stand on a picket line in northern Colorado, bundled against the cold, demanding that a company with $83 billion in annual revenue pay them enough to cover their rising healthcare costs and keep them safe on the killing floor. The answer JBS gives — and the one the market delivers — will say something important about where American labor stands in 2026.