Union workers at JBS USA’s Greeley, Colo., plant have come to an agreement with the meatpacking company and ratified a new contract, ending negotiations and officially getting back to work after a strike that lasted about half of the month of March, and uncertainty since negotiations resumed between the parties about 10 days ago.
JBS USA and United Food & Commercial Workers International Union Local 7 both announced the agreement over the weekend, and it means that the plant will resume “normal” operations immediately. The deal is a two-year contract that takes effect Apr. 8, 2026, the day it was ratified by 93% of the union membership. Some 3,800 workers at the facility were represented by the union, and they went on strike March 16 seeking higher wages and safer working conditions.
JBS USA and the union ended the strike on Apr. 4, 2026, when they resumed negotiations on a new deal, but the past week-plus has been fraught with uncertainty.
The AP reported that the groups agreed to wage increases over the next two years and a $750, one-time bonus. The company will pay for personal protective equipment (PPE) and defend workers against increases in health-care costs as well.
According to the AP report, JBS USA was disappointed that union leadership chose to shift and eliminate a pension benefit that was negotiated last year into wage increases in this agreement. The union agreed to withdraw seven alleged unfair labor practice charges, JBS USA told the AP.
The strike was the first at a U.S. slaughterhouse since 1985 — and much less eventful, thankfully — when Hormel workers in Austin, Minn., walked off the job, leading to a 13-month-long standoff that drew significant national attention, with violence, riots, injuries to protesters and law enforcement, and a significant amount of animosity and division in the small town of Austin as well as within the union itself.