John M. | Red Phoenix correspondent | Colorado–
In the early morning hours of March 16, more than 3,800 workers at JBS’s Swift Beef plant in Greeley, Colorado, one of the largest beef processing facilities in the United States, walked off the job. Nearly 99 percent of the union members voted to authorize the action, marking the first major strike at a U.S. beef slaughterhouse in more than four decades. As the walkout stretches into its third week, the workers—many of them longtime residents who have powered the plant for years—remain united on the picket lines, demanding wages that keep pace with Colorado’s rising cost of living, an end to out-of-pocket charges for essential safety equipment, and real protections against retaliation and unsafe conditions.
This is no isolated dispute. JBS, the world’s largest meatpacking company, reported record revenues of $86 billion in 2025 and net income of $2 billion, even as its North American beef operations faced tight cattle supplies. Yet the company’s latest contract offer included average annual wage increases of less than two percent—well below inflation—while continuing to shift healthcare costs onto workers and requiring them to pay $1,100 or more for personal protective equipment needed on the fast-moving production lines. Workers describe grueling shifts where line speeds leave little room for safety, and where any attempt to speak up is reportedly met with retaliation. One veteran worker put it plainly: the people doing the heavy, dangerous work that generates the company’s profits deserve better than being treated as disposable.
The Greeley plant processes a significant share of the nation’s beef supply, and the workforce reflects the changing face of American meatpacking: a majority of immigrant workers from Latin America, Africa, and elsewhere who have kept the industry running through tough times. Their strike highlights how decades of industry consolidation have left just a handful of giant companies controlling most beef production. This concentration has delivered strong profits for executives and shareholders, but it has also meant stagnant real wages for frontline workers, intensified production pressures, and a steady erosion of job security and safety standards in many plants.
History shows this pattern is nothing new—and that determined collective action can force change. In the early 1900s, famous labor activist Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle exposed the brutal realities of Chicago’s stockyards: dangerous work, filthy conditions, and the ruthless exploitation of recent immigrants from Eastern Europe. Public outrage led to important food safety reforms, but real improvements in workers’ lives came only through hard-fought organizing drives in the 1930s and 1940s. Packinghouse workers built strong industrial unions that crossed ethnic and racial lines, winning better wages, safer conditions, and basic dignity on the job through mass pickets and unified pressure on the big packers.
The 1985–86 Hormel strike in Austin, Minnesota, offers another clear lesson. When the company demanded deep concessions despite healthy profits, Local P-9 mounted a fierce resistance that drew national attention and broad community support. Though the parent union eventually intervened and the strike ended without fully achieving its goals, the action exposed how aggressive corporate tactics such as wage cuts, speedup, and threats, could be met with militant solidarity. It reminded working people that standing together, even against long odds, can slow the erosion of hard-won standards and inspire others to fight back.
Today’s Greeley strikers are writing the latest chapter in the long American class struggle against capital. They have kept the pressure on despite JBS shifting some operations and claiming increased returns to work. Union leaders report the company has shown little movement in serious bargaining, doubling down instead on its original positions. As beef prices remain high for consumers, workers rightly ask why so little of that value flows back to the people whose labor makes it possible.
This fight matters far beyond Greeley. It joins a broader wave of labor actions across industries where working families are pushing back against years of squeezed wages, rising costs, and declining protections. The outcome here will send a signal: whether giant corporations can continue treating essential workers as interchangeable parts, or whether organized labor can reclaim a fair share of the wealth it helps create.
Solidarity is the key. Other union locals, community groups, and supporters across the country have already begun showing up at the picket lines and contributing to strike funds. Every act of support, whether joining a rally, spreading the word, or donating, strengthens the workers’ hand and raises the cost to JBS of prolonging the standoff.
The Greeley strikers have already demonstrated remarkable unity and resolve. They deserve a contract that delivers meaningful wage increases, fully company-funded safety gear and healthcare that does not eat into paychecks, an end to retaliation, and genuine respect on the job. Anything less would reward the company’s stubbornness and weaken standards for meatpacking workers everywhere.
Working people built this vital part of the food industry. Their labor sustains the supply of meat and food products that reach tables across the country. It is long past time their voices—and their basic needs—carry real weight at the bargaining table. Hold the line in Greeley! The eyes of the labor movement are watching, and the fight for fair treatment in America’s packinghouses is far from over.