The Strike Doesn’t Have to Be Over!

For three weeks, meatpackers held the line in their strike against JBS, despite company threats of retaliation and the refusal of the UFCW Local 7 leadership to do what is necessary to win. Then on Saturday, without warning or explanation, President Cordova pulled the rug out from under the strike altogether. She knifed it behind the backs of union members, declaring unconditional surrender to the company. What a punch in the gut to every worker at the Greeley plant! JBS was just feeling enough pressure to agree to resume negotiations this Thursday. Union members must not let Cordova sabotage their fight and throw away all their leverage. She is not the union, the meatpackers are. Demand the union hold a meeting now, before anybody returns to work, to reverse this outrage. Real gains can still be won. The strike doesn’t have to be over!

Every union member should turn out for the meeting and hold Cordova to account for her backstabbing. The union can and should be a fighting force in defense of the workers. But she prevents that because she thinks JBS can be made to act in “good faith” through public exposure. We all know JBS will send every last worker to an early grave before it ever acts in good faith. At the union meeting, Cordova must be shown the door. The ranks have the right to decide to continue the strike and should elect a strike committee on the spot made up of reps from each different language group to do just that. This committee should then inform JBS that the strike will continue and take steps to turn up the heat. These include urging the maintenance union to join the strike to fight for a safer plant and encouraging other unions and working-class allies to help build a mass picket line to block the plant entrance. No meatpacker should set foot back on the job unless the union controls the production line speed. Now is the time to turn up the fight against JBS!