JBS Workers to Extend Unfair Labor Practice Strike Against JBS Into 3rd Week
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 26, 2026
CONTACT: Carla Wyatt | cwyatt@ufcw7.com | 303.425.0897 ext. 410
JBS WORKERS TO EXTEND UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICE STRIKE AGAINST JBS INTO 3RD WEEK
JBS commits new unfair labor practice; nearly 3,800 JBS-owned Swift Beef Company workers in Greeley, Colorado will remain on strike
Greeley, CO – United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 members at Greeley’s Swift Beef Company, owned by JBS N.V. (NYSE:JBS) have decided to extend their unfair labor practice strike against JBS into a third week as earlier today the Company continued to decline to meet and bargain with the Union and unlawfully conditioned further negotiations upon the Union’s agreement to terms negotiated with other, uninvolved, unions. Moreover, since the strike began, JBS has made no efforts to abate the unfair labor practices for which workers are striking, and instead has doubled down, insisting on the Company’s ability to punish workers for exercising their democratic right to strike. The strike originally began at 5:30 a.m. on Monday, March 16, 2026. Thousands of workers have joined the picket lines every day, with workers continually telling the Company to come to the table and negotiate fairly. Workers are also demanding that the Company discontinue its practice of subsidizing expense budgets for personal protective equipment through garnishing workers’ wages and ensure that proposed wage increases will be sufficient to meet inflation, including rising health care costs.
Even more galling, JBS’s failure to return to the negotiating table flies in the face of misleading comments made by JBS USA CEO Wesley Batista Filho in a conference call with investors. Although Batista told the Company’s shareholders when discussing the strike, “We hope this gets resolved as soon as possible,” just hours later, JBS issued an inflammatory press release insisting on the terms of a supposedly national agreement negotiated with UFCW International. Of course, JBS failed to mention that the UFCW International Union has fully sanctioned Local 7’s strike against JBS and joined workers on the picket line.
JBS’s failure to meet in light of its most recent earnings release makes plain that the Company continues to put profits before its people. The Company’s 2025 fourth quarter and year as a whole easily beat both prior results and expectations, with JBS bringing in a record $86 billion in revenue during the year. The Company’s profits likewise rose 15% on a year-over-year basis, reaching $2 billion. Indeed, according to one report, JBS’s stock rose as a result of improving margins in the U.S. beef industry – no doubt a result of incredible industry concentration harming workers, ranchers, and consumers. JBS has the resources necessary to give workers a contract they deserve.
Since mid-March, and despite JBS’s efforts to deceive workers and the media as to the plant’s status, the plant has been almost entirely idled with only a miniscule fraction of normal production occurring and at quality levels far below that which the skilled union workers achieve. Moreover, JBS has failed in its efforts to shift all of Greeley’s production to other JBS plants, with the Company suffering a meaningful loss in market share since the Company halted operations in advance of the strike to engage in a union-busting campaign.
UFCW Local 7 President Kim Cordova, the Union’s chief spokesperson, stated, “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. 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.”
In January, JBS and other large meatpackers paid a reported $200 million to resolve allegations that the companies had unlawfully conspired to suppress wages in beef processing nationwide. This settlement comes on top of other multi-million-dollar settlements in suits brought against the Company by farmers, ranchers, and customers. In its proposals at the negotiating table, JBS has likewise sought to limit workers wages and has instead insisted on wage increases of barely 1.5% on average per year, far below both historic and anticipated inflation. Indeed, earlier today the OECD updated its US inflation forecast to project that prices would rise by 4.1% in 2026 – far higher than earlier forecasts.
In February, after months of negotiations, workers voted overwhelmingly to authorize an unfair labor practice strike against JBS as a result of the Company’s refusal to negotiate fairly with workers, fix the company’s pattern of wage theft, provide raises to workers that keep pace with the rising cost of living in Colorado, and ensure stable health care costs for workers. Instead of shifting toward fair treatment, the Company has recently doubled down on its illegal tactics by threatening workers with termination if they did not resign from the Union and refuse to strike. These recent actions come on top of a pattern of retaliatory conduct against a member of the bargaining committee and others who have spoken out against the Company.
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Local 7, is the largest private-sector Union in Colorado and Wyoming. It is affiliated with the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union which represents over 1.3 million workers in the United States and Canada, 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.
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