Workers in Colorado Have Shut Down One of the Nation’s Biggest Meatpacking Plants

More than 3,000 workers at the JBS beef packing plant in Greeley, Colorado, walked off the line Monday morning, launching the first major meatpacking strike in over four decades after the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 voted nearly unanimously to protest stalled wage negotiations and poor working conditions. The plant processes about 7 percent of America's daily beef supply and normally slaughters roughly 30,000 head of cattle per week, but production came to a standstill with minimal crossings at picket lines and near-empty cattle pens by mid-morning. JBS has already begun redirecting livestock to facilities in Nebraska and Texas and warned it may hire replacement workers, a strategy that echoes the failed 1985-86 Hormel strike that ultimately led to industry consolidation and the replacement of unionized workers with immigrants at lower wages. If the strike extends beyond days, beef prices—which have climbed 15 percent for steaks since Trump took office—will likely rise further, potentially forcing government action against the Big Four meatpackers (JBS, Tyson, Cargill, and National Beef) who control 93 percent of the market. The union is betting that production disruptions will create enough economic pressure to trigger antitrust intervention against the company.