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Labor strikes aren't all that rare in the U.S., but in the meatpacking industry, there has not been a strike in 40 years. Or there hadn't been until last week when roughly 3,000 workers in northern Colorado walked off the job at one of the largest meatpacking plants in the country. Colorado Public Radio's Sarah Mulholland reports from Denver.
SARAH MULHOLLAND, BYLINE: Debra Rodarte started working at the JBS plant in Greeley, Colorado, three years ago, cutting meat into skirt steaks.
DEBRA RODARTE: At the time, I was a single mom and, you know, I needed a job ASAP to get on my feet and to be a mom to my child and to support her.
MULHOLLAND: She didn't have a lot of options.
RODARTE: And that's the first place that called me, so I was like, OK, let's go.
MULHOLLAND: Now she's on a picket line...
UNIDENTIFIED STRIKING WORKERS: Union, union, union...
MULHOLLAND: ...Demanding better pay and safety from the U.S. arm of JBS, the largest meat producer and packager in the world. This is the first major U.S. meatpacking strike since workers walked out at a Hormel plant in Minnesota in the 1980s. That dragged on for nearly a year, and most employees were ultimately replaced at the end of it. At the JBS plant, most workers are immigrants.
KIM CORDOVA: They hire a very vulnerable workforce.
MULHOLLAND: Kim Cordova is president of the local chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers union.
CORDOVA: They hire a lot of folks that are here, you know, seeking asylum, TPS, work authorization. An older workforce works here. And frankly, a lot of workers, you know, are afraid to speak up in this industry.
MULHOLLAND: Union leaders told members this strike would last two weeks. Veena Dubal, a labor law professor at UC Irvine, says a short strike can be effective without causing too much strain on workers.
VEENA DUBAL: Saying that a strike is two weeks is often a kind of way to show the employer, look, we have this power.
MULHOLLAND: A spokesperson for JBS says the plant in Greeley is still operating and more workers are coming back to work every day. Union president Cordova says they're keeping their options open.
CORDOVA: We can go back to work for one, two weeks, a day, or it doesn't matter, and go right back out on strike again.
MULHOLLAND: JBS set up a website disputing the union's claims. It says the union is misrepresenting how it compensates workers and that it provides adequate safety gear and protocols. Prices for beef at the supermarket haven't been affected yet by the strike, says Jennifer Martin, an associate professor in animal science at Colorado State University.
JENNIFER MARTIN: It takes some time for that disruption to trickle down to consumer prices.
MULHOLLAND: Martin says the JBS plant in Greeley accounts for as much as 8% of total beef capacity in the U.S. and is a major hub for the company. She says the strike could push beef prices up if it were to go much beyond two weeks. Prices were already at record highs before the strike, mostly due to a limited cattle supply after several years of drought in the West.
MARTIN: I think that's why there's probably a heightened level of concern around consumer pricing, because we've never seen beef prices like they are today.
MULHOLLAND: JBS says it's shifting production to other meatpacking facilities, and Martin says there is extra capacity in the system, given the shortage of cattle. But she says it's not that easy to shift meatpacking to other plants. Monday will mark two weeks since the start of the strike, but it's unclear if the union will end the strike then. It says negotiations with JBS are ongoing. For NPR News, I'm Sarah Mulholland in Denver.
(SOUNDBITE OF KAYTRANADA'S "WEIGHT OFF (FEAT. BADBADNOTGOOD)") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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