Meatpacking Workers Declare Victory After Major Strike
An overwhelmingly immigrant workforce in Colorado — speaking over 50 languages — says it won its strike at the largest meatpacking company in the world, striking a blow against an industry that has colluded to suppress wages and raise consumer prices.
Immigrant workers speaking Spanish, Burmese, French, and Haitian Creole, among 50 other languages, just won their strike against the biggest meat processor in the US. (Chet Strange / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Last month, 3,800 meatpacking workers in United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 7 in Greeley, Colorado, launched the industry’s first major strike in forty years.
The three-week unfair labor practice (ULP) strike was the first time workers had ever struck the JBS Greeley beef packing plant, one of the company’s largest. ULP charges against JBS included the illegal termination of a member of the bargaining committee and surveillance and intimidation of workers for participation in union activity.
With fifty-seven languages spoken under one roof, the strike united the plant’s largely immigrant workforce to take on the biggest meatpacking company in the world.
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