United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 released a statement on April 12 reporting that meatpackers at the JBS beef processing plant in Greeley, Colorado, voted to ratify a tentative agreement covering nearly 3,800 workers. The contract runs through April 2028.
UFCW Local 7 members ratified the contract following JBS’s return to the bargaining table, ending a three-week unfair labor practice (ULP) strike that began March 16. The ULP strike shut down the facility as an 80% immigrant workforce exercised their protected right to strike, refusing to be intimidated by the bosses and their ICE partners.
The Greeley strike was protected under federal labor law as an unfair labor practice strike. Local 7’s contract had expired in July 2025. Instead of bargaining with Local 7, JBS demanded that the union accept terms negotiated at other JBS facilities. Under labor law, forcing a union to accept terms negotiated by outside parties violates the duty to bargain in good faith.
JBS was counting on a workforce that couldn’t afford to demand its rights. Beginning in the 1980s, the meatpacking industry began hiring immigrant workers in an attempt to break UFCW’s union power. They recruited workers who were far from home, many of whom had precarious legal status, and they moved the factories to rural areas to break community ties.
The night shift at JBS Greeley is largely Haitian. Some workers report being recruited through TikTok ads promising stable jobs and housing. They arrived to find overcrowded housing — 40 to 60 people in a house — sometimes without running water or electricity. A December 2025 lawsuit alleges human trafficking tied to a JBS HR supervisor. JBS denies the claims.
JBS is trying to spin the result, claiming the deal is the same as before the strike and that any improvements came from shifting pension money, not from the company. That doesn’t hold up. It is the workers who held the line through three weeks of March cold who forced more. They came back with wage increases 33% higher than what JBS first offered. The contract includes a 70-cent-an-hour raise on ratification, followed by 40 cents in July 2026 and another 40 cents in July 2027 as well as a $750 bonus on ratification and $500 in April 2027. UFCW Local 7 called it “all gains, countless improvements, and not a single concession.” Whatever the company’s accounting says, it was the strike that moved the numbers.
It has been reported that JBS made $415 million in profit in the fourth quarter of 2025 and is valued at $18.7 billion on the stock market. The company is the top U.S. beef supplier to McDonald’s, Costco, Walmart, Kroger, Burger King, and KFC.
UFCW Local 7 reports that the agreement secures wage increases, protects workers from health care cost increases, and requires JBS to provide personal protective equipment at no cost to workers. Those wage increases are about 33% higher than what JBS offered in its pre-strike final offer.
Kim Cordova, president of UFCW Local 7, said the agreement “is a testament to the incredible resolve of our members. These workers stood together on the picket line for three weeks, through extreme weather, because they knew their worth and refused to be disrespected.”
UFCW Local 7 extended their gratitude to the solidarity of union brothers and sisters and community allies who stood up for them throughout the strike. The union says the outpouring of support was felt every day on the picket line. In turn, the courageous meatpackers’ strike has infused the labor movement with its energy.
One significant result of the strike was a worker safety bill introduced at the Colorado legislature in April. The bill would reinforce the union contract by protecting workers from wage garnishment for personal protective equipment and would hold meatpacking companies accountable for denying workers access to restrooms. It should be noted that legislation like this has to be fought for because of the dehumanizing conditions in the meatpacking industry.
In the end, it’s the union’s organizing power that gives workers a position of protection from which they can afford to withhold their labor and fight back.
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