JBS meatpacking workers in Greeley plan to extend their strike into a third week, saying the company continues to commit unfair labor practices and has declined to meet and bargain with their union.
Thousands of workers walked off the job on March 16 after months of negotiations with the company failed to deliver what they deemed a fair contract.
The union representing 3,800 workers at the flagship JBS plant, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, said the company was only offering raises of less than 2% per year, while garnishing workers’ wages for personal protective equipment and retaliating against laborers who took part in union activities.
The union initially said it planned to strike for two weeks. But JBS “has made no efforts to abate the unfair labor practices for which workers are striking, and instead has doubled down,” Local 7 officials Thursday evening.
“It is long past the time for JBS to return to the negotiating table, resolve the unfair labor practices, give workers a contract that respects them, protects their health and safety, and pays workers what they deserve,” UFCW Local 7 President Kim Cordova, the union’s chief spokesperson, said in the news release. “The union stands ready to meet with JBS at any time, but make no mistake, workers will continue to fight until JBS rights these wrongs.”
Despite JBS’s promise to shift production to other plants to account for the Greeley strike, the company has suffered a “meaningful loss in market share” since the strike began, union officials said.
JBS officials, for their part, say the meatpacking giant has maintained stable operations at the plant during the strike while lambasting the union’s actions and rhetoric in the media. The company has consistently questioned why Local 7 has refused to accept an offer that thousands of workers from its parent union at other facilities have already ratified.
“Local 7 has publicly claimed the dispute is about unfair labor practices, chain speed, and safe working environments,” the company said in a statement Thursday afternoon. “However, the union’s own proposals largely do not address or, in some instances, even relate to the alleged issues it complains of in the media. This strike is not about workplace conditions or legal violations.”
Workers told The Denver Post that they frequently get injured on the job, and that the company provides them with inadequate medical treatment. Production line speeds are so fast, they say, that they have to choose between safely doing their jobs or risk admonishment from management.
Meanwhile, the pay raises proposed by the company fail to keep up with the rising cost of living in northern Colorado, they contend.
