Workers at the Swift Beef Co. meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colorado, ended their three-week strike on Tuesday after plant owner JBS USA agreed to resume negotiations, according to union representatives. The strike, organized by the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 union, began on March 16, with workers seeking higher wages and improved healthcare benefits.
The strike occurred as U.S. cattle numbers hit a 75-year low, driven by drought and low prices offered to ranchers, according to the Associated Press. Meanwhile, beef prices have risen to record levels, adding to economic anxiety in the U.S.
The union said in a statement that workers would return to work Tuesday morning after JBS USA agreed to reopen talks later in the week. “Workers remain united and will continue to fight,” said local union president Kim Cordova in a statement.
JBS USA spokesperson Nikki Richardson said the company is “preparing to resume and ramp up operations at the Greeley plant next week.” She added, “Our Last, Best and Final offer remains on the table,” but did not include terms. “We hope employees will have the opportunity to review and vote on it soon.”
The strike at the JBS USA plant is the first strike at a U.S. slaughterhouse since workers walked out at a Hormel plant in Minnesota in 1985. That strike lasted more than a year and included violent confrontations between police and protesters. JBS is the world’s largest meatpacking company with a market capitalization of $17 billion and is the top employer in Greeley, a city 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Denver with a population of about 114,000 people.
Union officials said the company had offered less than 2% more a year in wages, which is less than inflation in Colorado, while the company denied any labor law violations and said its contract offer was fair. Abby Greiman, a livestock market adviser for industry consultant Ever.Ag, said the Greeley plant accounts for about 6% of the total U.S. beef slaughterhouse capacity.
The Colorado walkout followed the January closure of a meatpacking plant in Lexington, Nebraska, due to smaller herd sizes. JBS shares were approved for trading on the New York Stock Exchange last May despite environmental opposition and a federal probe that led to its guilty plea in October to bribing Brazilian officials for the financing it used for its U.S. expansion. At the Greeley plant, union officials said the company tried to intimidate workers to quit the union in one-on-one meetings, union general counsel Matt Shechter said.