Little detail on progress of JBS strike negotiations as workers continue to picket

[Omaha Steve]

https://www.cpr.org/2026/03/26/jbs-strike-negotiations-workers-picket/

By Sarah Mulholland
·
Mar. 26, 2026, 4:00 am

As of Thursday morning, workers are still on strike at the massive JBS meatpacking plant in Greeley. Union leaders of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 estimate that more than 3,000 employees are on the picket line.

Employees are seeking better pay, as is the case with most labor disputes, and JBS workers also want better safety standards. The union alleges that workers are forced to pay to replace their own safety equipment, and that it takes too long to replace things such as the steel mesh aprons that protect them from cutting themselves. The UFCW Local 7 also maintains that a national contract JBS ratified with the national UFCW at 14 facilities across the country last May doesn’t take into account the higher cost of living in Colorado.

Contract negotiations are fluid by design, making it difficult to pinpoint exactly where they stand before a deal is struck.

Here’s what we know so far:

There hasn’t been a strike at a meatpacking plant in the U.S. in decades.
The strike at JBS is the first strike at a meatpacking plant in the U.S. in 40 years. The last one was at a Hormel plant in Minnesota in 1985. It didn’t go well for the workers. It dragged on for nearly a year. Most of the employees who went on strike lost their jobs in the end.

FULL story at link above.