A Meatpacking Strike in Colorado Is Another Stress to Trump's Economy

[Omaha Steve]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/us/meatpacking-strike-beef-prices.html

The walkout at the JBS plant in Greeley, Colo., comes as beef prices have soared, cattle supplies have plunged and immigration sweeps have stressed the labor supply.

By Jack HealyVisuals by Daniel Brenner
Reporting from Greeley, Colo.

March 20, 2026

More than 3,000 union workers on the high plains of Colorado walked off the job this week from one of the largest meatpacking plants in the country, hoping to use cracks in President Trump’s economy to win higher wages and better working conditions.

The workers at the JBS plant in Greeley, Colo., staging the country’s first meatpacking strike in 40 years, say their pay for grueling, dangerous jobs has not kept pace with the soaring cost of living. They can no longer afford the steaks and briskets that they slice and pack during shifts that leave their shoulders aching, some said.

“We eat ramen,” Anthony Martinez, 57, said. He has cut back to pay his rising $2,200 rent and school costs for his two teenagers. “I do all this meat cutting, and we do not have meat in the freezer.”

So on Monday, a union made up largely of immigrants from Latin America, Asia and Africa made good on an earlier strike vote, with beef prices already up 20 percent over the past year and labor markets tightening amid immigration sweeps. Union members called it a matter of survival as hourly workers providing meat to an increasingly unequal and unaffordable America.

FULL story at link above.