Infusion Therapy Center near Greeley, CO

Workers at the JBS meat processing facility in Greeley are preparing to strike Monday after failing to reach a labor agreement with the company. JBS, one of the biggest meat processing companies in the world, is headquartered in-part in Northern Colorado.

Employees who CBS Colorado spoke with accuse the company of creating a hostile and unsafe working environment, noting their strike is not rooted in a desire for higher wages.

"We wait until the cattle starts coming down. Once it starts to hit our table we grab our piece. Everybody grabs their piece and we start cutting," said Deborah Rodarte, a JBS employee who is striking.

Rodarte works at a table along the JBS processing line, where each day she helps cut pieces from cattle that are later sold at retail.

"It is really hard," Rodarte said. "It is physically hard, and sometimes it can be mentally hard."

She is among the members with UFCW Local 7 who are planning to strike on Monday after negotiations with JBS fell flat. She said the union is concerned and alleges the company does not provide workers with safe conditions and gear.

"The chain is fast. We are shorthanded, or our knives don't work because they don't want to give us new knives," Rodarte said.. "It is a lot of different things that can cause emotional stress, and it's our safety."

Rodarte said one concern among staff is that the company allegedly denies to provide them protective gear (PPE) that helps keep them from injury or illness. She said they ask for better or sufficient PPE and are allegedly told by the company they don't have it or won't provide it.

"Sometimes we get neglected to receive new equipment when our equipment is ripped. That is one of our biggest safety issues there. We have to have the right PPE on to protect ourselves," Rodarte said. "We have to have the proper PPE so we don't hurt ourselves, and sometimes we don't get that proper PPE because they are out of stock. And we can work like that for months. And they will leave us on the table like that for months."

JBS did not provide CBS Colorado with opportunity to interview its management despite filing multiple requests. CBS Colorado also requested the company address the allegations of unsafe working conditions made by staff like Rodarte. As of the publishing of this article, a response has not been provided.

However, the company did issue a written statement. "For eight months, JBS USA engaged in negotiations with UFCW Local 7 in Greeley. Despite our continued efforts to reach a fair and responsible agreement, Local 7 chose to end negotiations and cancel the contract we had in place," the company shared.

"We stand by the offer we presented. It is strong, fair, and consistent with the historic national contract reached in 2025 in partnership with UFCW International—an agreement that has already delivered higher wages, a secure pension, and long‑term financial stability for team members at our other major facilities. UFCW Local 7 has refused to let team members vote on this offer."

"We do not believe a strike is in the best interest of our team members or their families. For any Greeley beef team members who do not wish to strike and want to continue working, we will ensure they have work available and are paid."

"We are also committed to our customers during this period and will prioritize continuity to help prevent disruptions. To protect the long‑term stability of the beef supply chain, we will temporarily shift production to other JBS facilities where we currently have excess processing capacity. This approach ensures we can continue meeting customer needs and maintain the availability of beef for American consumers. Our goal is to minimize impact to our customers, our partners, and the broader marketplace while we work toward a fair resolution in Greeley."

"JBS Greeley operates in full compliance with all applicable federal and state labor and employment laws, and we remain committed to maintaining open lines of communication. Our focus continues to be supporting our workforce, protecting the long‑term stability of the facility, and ensuring we can continue serving our customers and community."

Ultimately, Rodarte expressed her desire to feel that she and her colleagues are valued by the company they work for.

"We should be treated better than the cattle, because the cattle is the one that is treated better," Rodarte said.

A closure would have significant impact on beef production

Cattle futures have been on a historic multi-year bull run, with no amount of price hikes in beef or negative packer margins seemingly able to outweigh historically tight cattle supplies. A development that could throw a wrench in the rally is the potential closure of the JBS processing plant in Greeley, Colorado.

The plant is one of the largest in the country, processing an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 head per day according to the Colorado Times Recorder. The most recent USDA-NASS slaughter report shows 2.33 million head of cattle were slaughtered in federally inspected facilities in January, an average of 75,258 head per day. Assuming Greeley operates at the high end of the estimated capacity, the strike would result in a roughly 8% decrease in the daily kill rate at the national level.

If a strike does occur, and in turn lower processing capacity in the U.S. does take hold, both cash negotiations and live cattle futures are likely to see immediate pressure, with feeders following closely behind. For comparison, the announcement of Tyson winding down operations at their Lexington, Nebraska plant which processed approximately 5,000 head per day also resulted in a brief sell-off in the futures market. The nearby live cattle contract fell $7.25 the next trading day following the announcement, with feeders notching a $9.25 decline.

Lower beef production would also translate to a further increase boxed beef prices, which are already up 10.7% from the start of 2026, once again calling in to question what price consumers are willing to bear at the meat counter.

United Food and Commercial Works 7, the local union representing plant employees, held a vote on February 4 where 99% of union workers at the plant approved a potential strike, accusing the packer of engaging in bad-faith negotiations. Earlier this week, the union gave the required 7-day notice that they are canceling the current contract, which had been extended from its original end date in July of 2025. This means that a legal strike could occur as soon as Monday, March 16, just ahead of markets opening for the week.

UFCW 7 President Kim Cordova said JBS has participated in unfair labor practices and not negotiated fairly on a new contract over the past eight months, according to Reuters. Workers sought wages that keep pace with inflation and wanted the company to stop charging them for replacing protective equipment they wear to do their jobs safely, she said.

JBS said it complies ‌with ⁠labor laws, sought to reach a fair agreement, and charges employees for protective equipment that is lost or maliciously damaged, Reuters reported.

The union members are set to strike on Monday if no deal is reached with JBS before then.

GREELEY, Colo. — Thousands of workers at the JBS beef plant in Greeley, one of the largest fed beef plants in the United States, are set to go on strike at 5:30 a.m. Monday, after months of failed contract negotiations with the company over what the union calls unfair labor practices.

UFCW Local 7 notified JBS that the strike will begin March 16. The union said 99% of its members voted to authorize the work stoppage.

"Our members are prepared," said UFCW Local 7 President Kim Cordova. "They voted to strike. And we're ready to take on this strike."

At the center of the dispute are allegations that JBS has charged workers for replacement personal protective equipment, proposed inadequate wage increases, and committed unfair labor practices that have prevented a contract agreement. The union's bargaining committee has met with the company more than two dozen times.

"JBS is charging workers for the replacement of personal protective equipment that they are responsible to provide," Cordova said.

The union said some workers have been charged $1,100 or more for the equipment. The union also said the company has proposed wage increases of less than 2% per year on average — as low as 60 cents an hour for some workers — which the union said is insufficient to keep pace with the rising cost of living on the Front Range.

JBS disputes those claims. In a statement, the company said its policy has been in place for nearly 25 years and that workers are only responsible for paying for PPE if it is lost or maliciously damaged, not when it wears out through normal use. The company also said base hourly wages at the Greeley plant have increased approximately 46% since 2019, outpacing cumulative Front Range inflation of roughly 25% over the same period.

JBS said it presented a contract offer consistent with a national agreement reached in 2025 with UFCW International that it said

has already delivered higher wages, a secure pension, and long-term financial stability for workers at other major facilities. The company said the union has refused to let members vote on the offer.

Cordova pushed back on that characterization.

"Workers who are on the team have evaluated the company's offer, and they have rejected the offer," she said. She added that the two sides were close to a deal as recently as last week, saying they were "only $3 million apart, which to JBS is nothing."

If the strike moves forward, JBS said it will temporarily shift beef production to other facilities with excess processing capacity to avoid supply chain disruptions and continue serving customers.

The stakes are significant. Cordova described the Greeley plant as critically important not only to Colorado's economy but to the national food supply. JBS is one of the largest food producers in the world.

Union Walking Stewards at the plant said workers are ready to make their voices heard.

"They want to speak up and show them that they're worth more than just the meat that they're cutting or the cows that they're killing," said Leticia Avalos, a Union Walking Steward at the plant. "It’s giving people an opportunity to speak up and stand for what they feel is right."

Bienvenue Hovozounkou, another Walking Steward who came to the U.S. from Benin, West Africa, and has worked at the plant since 2019, echoed that sentiment.

"It's very hard to work over there. It's very, very hard," Hovozounkou said. "It's better to speak up."

Some workers at the Greeley plant are also involved in a separate, ongoing lawsuit alleging human trafficking. Employees claim they were recruited via TikTok from Haiti and Benin, and that after arriving in Colorado, they were forced to pay hundreds of dollars to their recruiter and lived in poor conditions.

Both sides have until Monday morning to reach a deal before the union members will strike.

The founder of the local restaurant chain Pinocchios deposited investor funds into personal and restaurant accounts, prosecutors said Monday during opening statements in the trial of Annie Vick.

Vick who faces 10 counts of securities fraud, argued in her opening statement that prosecutors aren’t showing the full picture, saying investors got their investments, and then some, back. Vick, 63, founded the Pinocchios restaurant chain in northern Colorado, including two locations in Greeley. She is no longer involved in the Longmont Pinocchios, and the Loveland location is closed.

Assistant Attorney General Joseph Wasserman said Monday investors have a right to know how their money is being invested and whether the person handling their money is licensed to do so.

Vick is representing herself in the trial, despite retaining an attorney in late 2024 after telling a judge she was having trouble finding legal representation during setting hearing in April 2024.

Wasserman told jurors Vick lied to investors about why she was being investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, telling investors that it was a routine audit rather than an investigation into her investments. She also lied to commission investigators, saying she wasn’t soliciting new investors even when she was, according to arrest records.

Instead of the money making its way into a brokerage account, which is designed for investments and trading, Wasserman said investors’ money went to her personal account and was used to pay off her credit card and restaurant expenses. Investors’ money was also used to pay back other investors, according to Wasserman.

“This money that goes to her, it never touches a brokerage account. It doesn’t even touch her personal brokerage account,” he said.

Vick said she started trading in 1999 and then started to manage her own investments a few years later after she lost $100,000 while working with a broker. Her friends and family then started asking her for help trading when they saw she built her investment account to $1.5 million.

People who invested with Vick were issued a promissory note, she said. They received consistent payments over time, she continued, and often made money off their investment. She also said the prosecution’s investigation never determined how much money belonged to her personally in the accounts in which she commingled investors’ money with her own. Jonathan Block, chief investigator for the Colorado Division of Securities, testified that although there are exceptions, if someone is providing financial guidance for compensation, they must be licensed. Typically, if someone has less than five clients, they may not have to be licensed, he said.

Though Block did not know whether people had to be licensed if they were only working with friends and family, Wasserman pointed out that Vick started AMV Investments in 2019 for the purpose of helping others invest.

Vick was arrested in February 2024 on 10 counts of securities fraud. She solicited more than $250,000 of investments and mixed them with her personal funds.

The trial is scheduled to continue through Friday.

Nearly 3,800 meatpackers at the JBS plant in Greeley plan to walk off the job March 16 after eight months of contract negotiations reached an impasse Friday, labor union officials said.

JBS employees have been working on an extension of the expired contract since July. Last week, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 bargaining committee voted to end the extension, which expires at 11:59 p.m. Sunday, clearing the way for workers to strike.

The disagreements are over wages and reimbursement of protective gear, which can cost hundreds of dollars, said Kim Cordova, president of UFCW Local 7. The company’s proposal to raise wages by 60 cents an hour in the first year and 30 cents annually for the next two years is similar to a national agreement JBS made with unions in other states last year.

“They are trying to suppress wages within the industry,” Cordova said Monday. “They’re trying to force us to take the national agreement. … But the health care costs increased 22 cents an hour (so) those folks got an 8-cent increase. That’s not gonna work for us.”

Headquartered in Greeley, JBS USA has 132 processing facilities, 109,000 employees and operates in nine countries, according to its website. In Greeley, workers process cattle into cuts of meat that end up on dinner tables nationwide. JBS, also known as Swift Beef Company, is one of the biggest beef processors in the country.

JBS spokesperson Nikki Richardson said in an email Monday that the company has spent the past eight months in discussions with union members over a new contract.

In a letter sent to Cordova, JBS USA’s head of labor relations Matthew J. Lovell wrote that it is the union “that abruptly walked away from the negotiation table without providing any response to our updated offer,” and he was “deeply disappointed” by the union’s characterization of the negotiations.

“Your claim that the company is seeking a labor dispute is frankly absurd. We have made meaningful movement on significant economic and non-economic issues throughout the process,” said the letter, shared by JBS.

Richardson called the latest offer “strong, fair and consistent with the historic national contract reached in 2025 in partnership with UFCW International.”

Should workers strike, the company is making plans to temporarily shift production to other JBS plants “where we currently have excess processing capacity,” Richardson said. “This approach ensures we can continue meeting customer needs and maintain the availability of beef for American consumers. Our goal is to minimize impact to our customers, our partners, and the broader marketplace while we work toward a fair resolution in Greeley.”

Worker wages at the plant have increased 46% since 2019, outpacing the 25% inflation in the Front Range, she added. But as much work as the company has put into negotiations, she said, “UFCW Local 7 has refused to let team members vote on this offer.”

The union has pushed back on comparing Greeley to states that approved a contract between the company and employees at 14 JBS plants in states including Utah and Texas. That new contract brought back pension plans, added sick pay and raised the average wage to $23 to $24 per hour, The Associated Press reported.

But the union said those communities have a lower cost of living. The same wage gains won’t go as far in Colorado, where the minimum wage is $15.16 an hour, or more than double the minimum in Texas, Utah and the U.S., which are all $7.25.

UFCW Local 7 said the company’s proposed pay raises are “less than 2% per year, hardly enough to pay for the increased cost of living.” For Greeley workers, the expired contract offered a base wage that was more than $22. JBS’ proposed increase would add 60 cents the first year and 30 cents annually for the next two years.

“We’re literally $3 million apart, which is a rounding error for JBS,” Cordova said. “It’ll be the first strike in decades for the meatpacking industry.”

In Colorado, the last meatpacker strike was in 1980 at the Monfort Packing Plant, which is now owned by JBS, according to the Greeley Tribune. The last in the U.S. was in 1985, when workers walked out at the Hormel Foods Corp. in Minnesota.

A Colorado foundation that invested in JBS after the company went public in June has said it will join the strike should it happen. AJL Foundation is a Denver-based foundation created in 2011 by homebuilders Amy and John Lawton that invests in programs supporting Colorado families and youth via grantmaking, direct investing and impact investing. The foundation owns 2,247 shares in JBS, with a market value of around $35,000. It’s typical for foundations to invest their principal.

AJL says it’s their fiduciary duty as shareholders to stand with JBS workers if they strike.

“JBS isn’t just another stock in the portfolio, it’s a major employer in Northern Colorado,” the foundation said on its website. “Disruptions in labor relations ripple into the community’s economic stability, local families’ wellbeing, and broader regional growth.”

Colorado Sun reporter Tracy Ross contributed to this story.

Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.