JBS Abuses Lead to New Colorado Law Governing Restroom Breaks and Personal Protective Equipment
Colorado Governor Jared Polis Signs Senate Bill 26-160 Into Law
DENVER, Co. – Earlier today, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed into law Senate Bill 26-160. The legislation was inspired by workers at the JBS-owned Swift Beef Company plant in Greeley, Colorado, who earlier this spring engaged in a three-week long unfair labor practice strike against the Company. The workers, represented by United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, Local 7, testified to legislators about JBS’s history of abuses, including improperly charging workers for personal protective equipment and supervisors barring workers from leaving a beef production line to use the restroom.
The legislation makes several critical changes to Colorado’s labor laws to enhance protections not only for JBS employees, but for workers across Colorado. The legislation codifies a Colorado Court of Appeals decision preventing all Colorado employers from deducting from an employee’s paycheck for goods or services that primarily benefit the employer – and ensures that Personal Protective Equipment is specifically called out in the law as primarily benefiting employers. This change will restrict JBS’s improper deductions from workers pay for personal protective equipment. Meatpacking workers require extensive personal protective equipment just to ensure they can get home alive and unharmed at the end of each workday. Instead of ensuring workers have what they need, JBS had been charging many workers in a thinly veiled attempt to offset the cost of this equipment.
Second, the law will give new enforcement power to the Colorado Department of Labor & Employment to punish bad actors in the meatpacking industry, like JBS, when the company refuses to let their employees take bathroom breaks while working. Bathroom breaks have also reportedly been an issue affecting Teamster-represented employees at the Cargill facility in Fort Morgan, Colorado, where workers are currently being locked out by their employer. Colorado recognized that restroom breaks in the meatpacking industry are not just a personal safety issue, but also necessary to ensure the nation’s meat supply is not contaminated through these corporate abuses.
Meanwhile, JBS’s abusive practices continue unabated with its workers at the Denver Processing plant. Workers at JBS-owned Denver Processing, a case-ready beef and pork production facility in Denver, voted overwhelmingly to authorize an unfair labor practice strike. JBS, which operates the Denver Processing plant, continues to insist upon poverty-level wage increases at the Denver Processing plant, while refusing to meet workers’ demands for two days off each week.
UFCW Local 7 President Kim Cordova remarked, “Workers should not need to stand out on a picket line or go to the legislature to ensure their basic human dignity. Bathroom breaks and personal protective equipment are something every employer should provide as non-negotiable items. Sadly, JBS has shown time and time again they will not hesitate to threaten the lives and livelihoods of their workers in the name of production. Denver Processing workers stand ready to continue the fight against JBS.”
The legislation was championed by Colorado State Senators Robert Rodriguez and Julie Gonzales, as well as Representatives Monica Duran and Matt Martinez. More than forty-five Colorado legislators joined as co-sponsors of the bill, which passed the legislature in early May.
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Local 7, the largest private-sector Union in Colorado, is affiliated with United Food and Commercial Workers International Union which represents over 1.3 million workers in the United States and Canada and is one of the largest private-sector Unions in North America. UFCW members work in a wide range of industries, including retail food, food processing, agriculture, retail sales, and health care.