Nearly 3,800 meatpackers at the JBS plant in Greeley plan to walk off the job March 16 after eight months of contract negotiations reached an impasse Friday, labor union officials said.
JBS employees have been working on an extension of the expired contract since July. Last week, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 bargaining committee voted to end the extension, which expires at 11:59 p.m. Sunday, clearing the way for workers to strike.
The disagreements are over wages and reimbursement of protective gear, which can cost hundreds of dollars, said Kim Cordova, president of UFCW Local 7. The company’s proposal to raise wages by 60 cents an hour in the first year and 30 cents annually for the next two years is similar to a national agreement JBS made with unions in other states last year.
“They are trying to suppress wages within the industry,” Cordova said Monday. “They’re trying to force us to take the national agreement. … But the health care costs increased 22 cents an hour (so) those folks got an 8-cent increase. That’s not gonna work for us.”
Headquartered in Greeley, JBS USA has 132 processing facilities, 109,000 employees and operates in nine countries, according to its website. In Greeley, workers process cattle into cuts of meat that end up on dinner tables nationwide. JBS, also known as Swift Beef Company, is one of the biggest beef processors in the country.
JBS spokesperson Nikki Richardson said in an email Monday that the company has spent the past eight months in discussions with union members over a new contract.
In a letter sent to Cordova, JBS USA’s head of labor relations Matthew J. Lovell wrote that it is the union “that abruptly walked away from the negotiation table without providing any response to our updated offer,” and he was “deeply disappointed” by the union’s characterization of the negotiations.
“Your claim that the company is seeking a labor dispute is frankly absurd. We have made meaningful movement on significant economic and non-economic issues throughout the process,” said the letter, shared by JBS.
Richardson called the latest offer “strong, fair and consistent with the historic national contract reached in 2025 in partnership with UFCW International.”
Should workers strike, the company is making plans to temporarily shift production to other JBS plants “where we currently have excess processing capacity,” Richardson said. “This approach ensures we can continue meeting customer needs and maintain the availability of beef for American consumers. Our goal is to minimize impact to our customers, our partners, and the broader marketplace while we work toward a fair resolution in Greeley.”
Worker wages at the plant have increased 46% since 2019, outpacing the 25% inflation in the Front Range, she added. But as much work as the company has put into negotiations, she said, “UFCW Local 7 has refused to let team members vote on this offer.”
The union has pushed back on comparing Greeley to states that approved a contract between the company and employees at 14 JBS plants in states including Utah and Texas. That new contract brought back pension plans, added sick pay and raised the average wage to $23 to $24 per hour, The Associated Press reported.
But the union said those communities have a lower cost of living. The same wage gains won’t go as far in Colorado, where the minimum wage is $15.16 an hour, or more than double the minimum in Texas, Utah and the U.S., which are all $7.25.
UFCW Local 7 said the company’s proposed pay raises are “less than 2% per year, hardly enough to pay for the increased cost of living.” For Greeley workers, the expired contract offered a base wage that was more than $22. JBS’ proposed increase would add 60 cents the first year and 30 cents annually for the next two years.
“We’re literally $3 million apart, which is a rounding error for JBS,” Cordova said. “It’ll be the first strike in decades for the meatpacking industry.”
In Colorado, the last meatpacker strike was in 1980 at the Monfort Packing Plant, which is now owned by JBS, according to the Greeley Tribune. The last in the U.S. was in 1985, when workers walked out at the Hormel Foods Corp. in Minnesota.
A Colorado foundation that invested in JBS after the company went public in June has said it will join the strike should it happen. AJL Foundation is a Denver-based foundation created in 2011 by homebuilders Amy and John Lawton that invests in programs supporting Colorado families and youth via grantmaking, direct investing and impact investing. The foundation owns 2,247 shares in JBS, with a market value of around $35,000. It’s typical for foundations to invest their principal.
AJL says it’s their fiduciary duty as shareholders to stand with JBS workers if they strike.
“JBS isn’t just another stock in the portfolio, it’s a major employer in Northern Colorado,” the foundation said on its website. “Disruptions in labor relations ripple into the community’s economic stability, local families’ wellbeing, and broader regional growth.”
Colorado Sun reporter Tracy Ross contributed to this story.