The Cargill Meat Solutions beef processing plant in Fort Morgan has been idle since May 20, a day after the more than 1,700-employee union rejected Cargill’s “last, best and final” contract. When union members showed up for work, they were locked out of the plant.
Employees haven’t worked since, let alone collected a paycheck.
On Tuesday, Teamsters Local 455 leaders, who represent the Cargill employees, returned to the negotiating table with company officials. Union officials did not return messages seeking comment.
“As we’ve shared, a lockout was not the outcome Cargill wanted and we remain committed to reaching an agreement that supports employees and protects the long-term future of the Fort Morgan facility,” Cargill spokesperson Hli Yang said in an email.
The plant had been operating at reduced capacity since April 23, when Cargill sent workers home with pay as negotiations continued on a contract that ended in February. By the time of the lockout, Cargill, the nation’s largest private firm, had already adjusted production at the plant. It locked out workers because the company believed the union “could call an immediate work stoppage during contract negotiations.”
The missing meat
More than a decade ago, Cargill said it was processing 4,800 head of cattle daily and 1.2 million head a year. Last year, the company was processing 4,000 head per day when it put $24 million of a projected $90 million technology investment into the Fort Morgan plant to help scrape more meat off every bone.
At the time of the lockout in May, Teamsters Local 455 secretary-treasurer Dean Modecker said Fort Morgan plant employees were at “2,500 heads a day.”
The company, which had $154 billion in revenues last year, has said with the U.S. cattle supply at its lowest in years “even a 1% yield improvement can keep hundreds of millions of pounds of beef in the food system annually, helping amid tight supplies and higher prices.”
LEFT: During a December 2, 2025 tour of the Cargill plant in Fort Morgan, an employee walks by beef carcasses in a storage room. RIGHT: On the same day, a Cargill worker demonstrated how a terminal monitors work efficiency on a beef processing line at the Fort Morgan plant. (Jeremy Sparig, Special to The Colorado Sun)
But now cattle intended for the Fort Morgan plant are being redirected to other Cargill beef processing plants in Dodge City, Kansas; Schuyler, Nebraska; and Friona, Texas, according to the company. Cargill did not answer the question on who was covering the extra cost to transport cattle out of state to another facility.
The manager of a local feedlot that sells around half of the 56,000 cows they finish after receiving them from ranchers to four meatpacking plants including Cargill per year said Cargill is current on payments for cattle it bought before the lockout but is not bidding on new cattle at the moment.
That isn’t hurting the feedlot currently, but it could if the lockout continues. State Sen. Byron Pelton, a Republican from Sterling, said “it’s frustrating” to watch the effects of the dispute ripple through the community “when Cargill jobs are some of the highest paying in Morgan County.”
“Cargill could shut down that plant tomorrow and it would hurt the communities out here but it sure isn’t going to hurt the Teamsters when those folks go work somewhere else,” he said.
What happened to the workers?
At first, employees picketed behind the Cargill plant, holding signs that said “The Steaks Are High” and “Teamsters Locked Out.” The feeling at the scene was jovial, with some workers dancing and singing, but that was early in the lockout, which has now dragged on for two months.
In the contract rejected by union members in May, Cargill had offered year one wages between $24.20 and $32.10 an hour, which the company said adds up to $33.4 million over the five-year contract. Modecker, with the union, said in May that the sticking points were mostly economic and included asking for more wage increases and improved healthcare coverage.
LEFT: Cargill meatpacking workers gather signs at the start of their shift during a picket on July 22, 2026 in Fort Morgan. RIGHT: Pascual Cosío, who has worked at the Cargill meatpacking plant for 16 years, waits to start his shift. (Cheney Orr, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)
Since the plant closed, Jorge Castañeda, who worked for Cargill on the production line de-boning cattle, has lost his health insurance and is receiving state unemployment benefits, which he describes as insufficient given the current cost of living in Fort Morgan.
Some union members show up every day to continue protesting the lockout in the town’s Glenn Miller Park. But Castañeda said he is not protesting or attending demonstrations. He is a Teamsters union member but is not receiving union pay, he said, declining to elaborate.
Castañeda is searching for work, following the rules of state unemployment. But job options are scarce in town and he may need to start commuting to Greeley or Denver. “We’re already looking at the possibility of finding another job because there’s no concrete information about whether we’re going back or not, or when, or anything,” the father of three children said in Spanish. “So the uncertainty is already making us make other decisions.”
According to state labor data, Morgan County saw its unemployment rate shoot up to 6% in June, a few weeks after the Cargill lockout began. The county’s rate was 3.9% in May.
Workers who participate in a strike aren’t usually eligible for unemployment benefits because labor strikes are typically voluntary. But when an employer locks out employees, workers may be eligible for benefits. Each claim is unique, according to the state Department of Labor and Employment.
In Colorado, unemployment benefits provide 55% of a person’s average weekly wage in the past 12 months. The maximum payment is $844 per week. Visits to the United Way of Morgan County’s 24-hour food pantries have increased since the lockout started.
As of July 27, the state has received 502 claims from Cargill workers for unemployment benefits, according to a state labor department spokesperson.
Meanwhile, the Cargill plant in Fort Morgan is hiring, with some jobs posted as recently as Monday. One opening requires the “use of knife to … prepare carcasses/parts for USDA-FSIS inspection,” and pays $26.25 an hour.
Impact on other Colorado unions
Cordova has a unique vantage point. She led 3,800 JBS meatpackers in Greeley on a strike earlier this year. The union protested JBS’ offer, which was similar to a national agreement JBS reached with about a dozen other unions last year. It provided pay raises, paid sick leave and a pension plan. But Cordova said it didn’t address rising healthcare premiums or Colorado’s higher cost of living. After four weeks, they agreed on a new contract that capped healthcare premiums.
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 recently added new members who began working for JBS-owned Swift Beef Company in Greeley. Some are from Cargill, said Kim Cordova, UFCW Local 7’s president. “We meet with the workers the moment they get hired,” she said.
LEFT: Striking workers picket near the JBS meatpacking facility Monday, March 16, 2026, in Greeley. (Tanya Fabian, Special to The Colorado Sun) RIGHT: Kim Cordova, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union Local 7, speaks at a new conference in a Safeway parking lot in Denver on Feb. 6, 2025 during a King Soopers supermarket strike by workers who walked out to protest unfair labor practices. (Claudia A. Garcia, Special to The Colorado Sun)
That national contract keeps popping up for Local 7, which also represents 300 JBS workers in Denver who package meat for grocery stores. Workers at that facility voted to authorize a strike in April, although they have not walked out yet. Cordova said the tactics of the “Big Four” meat packers — Tyson Foods, JBS, Cargill and National Beef — are the same. But what happens with the Cargill contract could have a major impact for future JBS union contracts, as well as for grocery workers at King Soopers and Safeway who are also part of UFCW Local 7.
“In terms of JBS and the Big Four, they are locking arms and they are doing everything to create a low standard wage,” Cordova said. “JBS has already set a standard around the country. We’re a little different because we took that strike. But we go back to the table in ’28, and if Cargill workers and the Teamsters end up not being successful and agree to those low wages, that’s going to almost ensure another dispute because we are not going to be stuck in that position. … These low wages mean nothing when there’s no guardrails to offset the increased costs of healthcare.”