Caitlyn Clark and Lisa Xu at LaborNotes report on the 3,800 Meatpacking Workers who are represented by United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 7 in Greeley, Colorado – who launched the industry’s first major Strike in 40 years.
Their three-week Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike was the first time Workers had ever struck the JBS Greeley Beef Packing Plant, one of the company’s largest. ULP Charges against JBS included the illegal termination of a Bargaining Committee Member and surveillance and intimidation of Workers for participation in Union activity. With 57 languages spoken under one roof, the Strike united the Plant’s largely Immigrant Workforce to take on the biggest Meatpacking Company in the world.
The Local had spent nearly a year in negotiations following the contract’s expiration in July 2025. JBS returned to the bargaining table after the Strike – and when the dust settled, the company had conceded to almost every demand. In addition to $1.50 an hour in wage increases over the short two-year agreement, workers won a ground-breaking policy on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), challenging JBS’s previ
