About 3,800 workers are on strike at Swift Beef Company, one of the largest beef processing plants in the United States. Workers at the plant, who belong to the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, overwhelmingly voted to strike after negotiations with the facility’s parent company, JBS USA, stalled. The strike draws immediate national attention because the Greeley plant represents a major part of the American beef supply chain.
Like nearly all job disputes, there are two sides to the argument: JBS USA leaders said the company offered competitive pay and benefits, while the union members were concerned about wages, workplace safety, and job conditions inside the plant.
JBS USA operates as the American division of the global meat company JBS S.A., which runs one of the largest beef processing operations in the world. This disagreement now places one of the country’s largest slaughter facilities in the middle of a labor standoff.
The Greeley plant processes thousands of cattle every day, with industry analysts estimating the plant handles roughly 6% of the total U.S. beef slaughter capacity.
Most ranchers can still get cattle to market because the national herd is smaller, and that could give JBS some leverage in negotiations, since other slaughterhouses can absorb the Greeley plant’s work, Greiman said.
Feedlots hold clues to consumer costs
Yet an extended strike at Greeley could disrupt the industry, particularly in Colorado and neighboring states, said Jennifer Martin at Colorado State University’s animal sciences department.
“The feedlots, the people who have the cattle right now — the longer they sit kind of in a holding pattern, the more expensive they become to feed,” said Martin. “For consumers, it means that prices will likely go up.”