Expand Strike, Win Safety

The considerable courage of the heavily immigrant meatpackers who are now on strike against JBS in Greeley, Colorado, is to be saluted. They endure countless abuses at work and threats of deportation, mass firings and other victimization. Many were lured to the job from their home countries by company recruiters promising the American dream, only to experience an American nightmare. Today, the U.S. is awash in the brutal exploitation of foreign-born workers and anti-immigrant terror directed from the top—making it easier for the bosses to drive down conditions for U.S.-born workers too. In the face of everything thrown at them, the JBS workers are fighting back together to change things, but they need a different strategy to win.

The leadership of their union, UFCW Local 7, has organized the strike to shame JBS into bargaining in good faith, rather than to cripple its production to force its hand. The company is anti-worker to the core. Workers are treated worse than the cows they slaughter, by conscious design to maximize profits. The bosses ignore safety rules, complaints, grievances and suits documenting human trafficking. They operate the line at breakneck speed, slowing it down only when visitors appear. They refuse to grant adequate breaks, knowing full well that it takes time to remove chainmail and put it back on. They threaten to call ICE on workers who protest against forced unpaid overtime. They dismiss women’s particular needs regarding bathroom breaks. They keep sharp knives scarce to encourage infighting among workers over blades. They set up the facility like an old slave plantation, putting workers who speak 57 different languages side by side in an attempt to create division and prevent joint struggle.

The strike proves JBS was wrong about that. But the strike won’t make a lasting impact unless steps are taken to maximize union power. Some 1,500 workers who are up for a fight are on the picket lines at any given moment. But union leaders are pulling punches, rather than trying to stop scabs and shut the plant down. The meatpackers could draw others into their fight if they reached out to ranchers who JBS also squeeze as well as other unions and the larger working-class community. There is power and protection in numbers. All working people, not least those from the U.S., have much to gain from a strike that actually beats back a big employer in these dark times.

JBS is sending cattle originally bound for Greeley to other facilities. The UFCW represents workers at some of these locations and should mobilize them to refuse to handle the diverted cows. Union delegates should also go to the non-union locations to bring those workers into the UFCW, while encouraging them to turn away struck product. UFCW leaders worry about the letter of contracts that JBS tramples on every day, rather than about how to strengthen the union. The strike should be extended past this weekend until JBS buckles to safety demands, from company-paid protective equipment to union control of line speed. The union has to establish itself as the enforcer of safety on the shopfloor.

• Build mass pickets to shut the plant down through appeals to ranchers, other unions and working people
• Encourage other JBS plants to refuse to handle diverted product
• Extend the strike until basic safety measures are won