Workers at the JBS meatpacking plant could soon begin the plant’s first strike if negotiations fall through Friday.
Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 gathered to make picket signs for the potential walkout Saturday at the DoubleTree by Hilton in downtown Greeley. The union represents about 3,800 workers at the plant.
Union officials said they’ll negotiate with the company Friday, trying to resolve allegations of unfair labor labor practices. If they can’t come to an agreement, the strike could begin seven days later.
Leticia Avalos, a union walking steward at the plant, recently attended a picket captain training to learn about proper conduct through the potential strike. She said the conditions for workers at the plant are the worst they’ve ever been in her six years there, saying “they treat the animals that they kill better than the people that are there working for them.”
“I see a lot of unjust labor practices that they do at JBS,” she said. “It’s made me want to stand up and be a leader for the people that are going to be out in on strike.”
Among the top concerns Avalos detailed were workers having to work with dull or broken knives, the company not sufficiently supplying protective equipment and labor practices that put workers in harm’s way.
“Someone could lose their life if they don’t have the proper equipment,” she said. “We work with knives all day, some work with saws, so it’s a very dangerous job. … Imagine working with a knife all day, eight hours, high speed. Sometimes they’re short-handed.”
Raymundo Lopez, center and Fransisco Madrigal, right, both assemble picket signs while Max Soto, 9, plays on his tablet under the table during a picket sign making event held by UFCW Local 7 in preparation for a possible strike by JBS employees, at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Greeley on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. (Brice Tucker/Staff Photographer)JBS told The Denver Post the company had negotiated in good faith, offering “meaningful wage increases” and a pension plan. Workers at other JBS locations have already agreed to these terms, the statement said.
“We respect the collective bargaining process and remain hopeful that the local union will choose to move forward with this agreement so we can continue focusing on providing good-paying jobs, partnering with cattle producers in the region and serving our customers with high-quality food,” JBS representatives said.
JBS USA, headquartered in Greeley, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Brazil-based JBS S.A., the world’s largest processor of beef and pork, with more than $50 billion in annual sales.
Negotiations on a new contract have gone on for more than eight months. The company is only offering a 90-cent-per-hour wage increase for most workers, union representatives said, which does not keep pace with inflation and the rising cost of living in Greeley.
Union officials also said JBS has fired a member of the bargaining committee, punished a worker for filing a grievance against management and making changes to working conditions without giving the union notice.
Avalos’ mother worked at the plant for 34 years. When she got injured at the plant, Avalos said, the company didn’t try to accommodate her — a practice that’s common at the plant, Avalos said.
“People who have been injured or they’re having like restrictions, they really are on top of checking them to see any little thing just to write them up, discipline, get them out pretty much as fast as they can,” she said. “Or sometimes they don’t want to help out at all and try to accommodate them, even if they have been injured there.”
Many workers at the plant are immigrants, with employees speaking more than 50 languages. Avalos said it’s difficult seeing coworkers who have become like friends or even family face the pressures of the possible strike amid a background of increased immigration enforcement.
“A lot of them are worried and scared because it’s going to hurt them financially as well. They depend on their jobs, they want a job, they they need it,” she said.
JBS workers are hopeful their efforts will lead to better working conditions under what has long been the city’s largest employer.
“We want to be treated fairly and be treated with respect,” Avalos said.
— Greeley Tribune photographer Brice Tucker and The Denver Post contributed to this report.
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