JBS workers initiate strike
On March 16, roughly 3,000 unionized workers at the JBS Swift Beef Company in Greeley, Colo. initiated a labor strike due to ongoing contract disputes.
Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 7 Union say the decision comes after eight months of ongoing contract negotiations with JBS which have failed to resolve issues the union refers to as “unfair labor practices.”
Ongoing negotiations
On March 6, UFCW Local 7 representatives announced plans to cancel a contract extension between workers and JBS, citing a failure by the company to resolve “unfair labor practices and secure a contract which shows workers the dignity they deserve.”
“For months now, JBS has been insisting on poverty-level wages for workers at the plant, offering less than two percent in average annual wage increases – far below the level of inflation in Colorado – while at the same time putting all of the risk of rising healthcare costs on workers,” says UFCW Local 7 President Kim Cordova in the March 6 press release. “Meanwhile, despite being the world’s largest protein producer, JBS has been stealing from workers’ paychecks to fund the company’s profits. JBS can afford to do better.”
The contract extension cancellation quickly progressed into plans for initiating an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike, which was announced in a March 9 press release one week before the strike began.
UFCW Local 7’s member-led bargaining committee claims to have met with JBS officials more than two dozen times and failed to reach a mutually agreeable contract, leading to an alleged 99 percent of workers authorizing the ULP strike.
Union representatives say the dispute centers on issues regarding wages, rising healthcare expenses and increased prices of necessary protective gear required for job safety.
“JBS workers deserve wage increases that keep pace with inflation, support their health, protect their retirement and allow workers to work with dignity and respect,” write union representatives in a March 9 press release.
Instead, the union alleges JBS has been “charging many workers $1,100 or more in order to offset the company’s expenses for life-saving equipment needed to ensure worker safety” while proposing insufficient wage increases and upping the cost of healthcare premiums.
“The goal of negotiations is never to go on strike,” Cordova adds in the press release. “But when the company violates workers’ rights and ignores workers’ concerns about safety and health, the company gives workers no choice but to stand together in solidarity and show the company they cannot be silenced.”
JBS responds
A March 9 CBS Colorado article details the response from JBS officials following the strike announcement.
According to the article, the company disputes the workers’ allegations and stands firmly by a presented contract offer which JBS Spokesperson Nikki Richardson calls “strong, fair and consistent with the historic national contract reached in partnership with UFCW International” in 2025.
Richardson adds this agreement “has already delivered higher wages, a secure pension and long‑term financial stability for team members at other major facilities.”
In a March 7 letter to the union, JBS USA’s Head of Labor Relations, Environmental Health and Safety and Security Matthew Lovell says JBS has made “meaningful movement on significant economic and non-economic issues” throughout the contract negotiation process.
“It is the union, not the company, who abruptly walked away from the negotiation table without providing any response to our updated offer, offering no further conversation or attempting to reach a deal,” Lovell continues.
The article also notes JBS plans to move production to other facilities during the strike to minimize impact to customers, partners and the broader marketplace.
Market impact
JBS is the largest meatpacking entity in the world, employing more than 270,000 workers worldwide and spending roughly $3.1 billion on livestock every year.
The Swift Beef Company plant boasts one of JBS’s biggest employee bases, and the strike has led to some concerns and uncertainty regarding cattle markets while the dispute remains ongoing.
Cash cattle prices weakened as packers slowed slaughter schedules in the days following the announcement of the strike, with southern live cattle trading roughly four dollars lower and northern dressed cattle falling by about three dollars, according to a March 9 Rural Radio Network Midday Market Report by Alex Makovicka.
However, a March 16 Drovers article published after the strike began notes cattle markets were not heavily impacted, with live and feeder cattle futures actually opening higher on the morning of March 16.
Industry experts quoted in the Drovers article say slaughter capacity should not suffer too much as the strike continues.
“With the limited cattle supply we’re dealing with, we still have excess slaughter capacity,” says Don Close, senior animal protein analyst at Terrain Ag. “It’s going to give way more leverage to the packers, but it will help them shore up their negative margins.”
“Any disruption in labor availability has largest impacts on producers operating closest to involved plants,” adds Glynn Tonsor, Kansas State University professor of agricultural economics. “In aggregate, I do not expect large fed cattle price impacts as the industry is operating with excess physical capacity relative to available cattle supplies.”
The full market impact will depend upon how long the strike lasts and whether JBS can keep cattle moving, as noted in a March 18 RANGE Magazine newsletter.
“For now, analysts say the immediate market impact will depend on how long the strike lasts and whether the plant can maintain operations with replacement workers or management staff,” reads the newsletter. “Short interruptions may have a limited effect, but a longer shutdown could temporarily slow cattle marketings in the region and tighten beef supplies.”
Grace Skavdahl is the editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.
