Guests

More than 3,000 meatpacking workers in Greeley, Colorado, have been on strike since mid-March, the first major labor strike in the U.S. meatpacking industry since 1985. Workers at JBS USA, the U.S. subsidiary of Brazilian-based multinational JBS, are protesting unfair and dangerous labor conditions, including low wages, lack of personal protective gear and discrimination against its majority-immigrant workforce. “This company is one of the richest companies in the world, and the wage increases that they’re offering simply just don’t keep up with the economy and the high cost of living,” says Kim Cordova, president of the union that represents JBS workers in Greeley. “These workers literally feed America,” adds organizer Caitlyn Clark, director at the labor rights nonprofit Essential Workers for Democracy. “This is really a historic strike. These workers are standing up not just for their own plant, but the meatpacking industry as a whole.”

Transcript

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.

In Greeley, Colorado, more than 3,800 meatpacking workers are in the third week of a strike. It’s the first major strike in the meatpacking industry in 40 years. The workers are protesting unfair and dangerous labor conditions at JBS USA, the world’s largest food producer. The Greeley facility processes 6,000 head of cattle a day. United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 members have been fighting for wage increases that take into consideration rising healthcare costs and requiring the company to pay for lifesaving personal protective equipment — that’s PPE — like metal aprons that protect workers from cutting themselves. Currently, the workers must pay for their own equipment. It comes out of their own salaries.

For more, we’re joined by two guests. In Greeley, we’re joined by Kim Cordova, president of UFCW Local 7, representing the JBS workers. And here in New York, Caitlyn Clark, director at Essential Workers for Democracy.

Let’s go to Greeley first. Kim, if you can start off by talking about the significance of you going into this third week of the strike, and what exactly you’re demanding?

KIM CORDOVA: Yeah. Good morning.

As you said, this is an historic fight with these very brave workers, which is mostly led — the strike is mostly led by immigrant workers. This workforce is made up of workers that speak around 57 different languages from all over the world, doing this really important work, feeding our communities, our country and, in fact, the entire world.

You know, we’ve been fighting over JBS’s unfair labor practices. This is a company that doesn’t follow the law. They are violating workers’ rights, as well as human rights, for these workers who work in this very dangerous industry, as you said, charging and garnishing workers for the replacement of personal protective equipment. And workers can die or have significant dangerous injuries as a result of not having the proper equipment at work.

This company is one of the richest companies in the world, and the wage increases that they’re offering simply just don’t keep up with the economy and the high cost of living. It’s less than 2% a year for their wage increases, while they are shifting the cost of healthcare. And we’ve seen an increase of healthcare over the last five years moving up over 37%. Really, these wage increases that they’re offering really come up to about eight cents an hour, which isn’t going to help workers or sustain a workforce in an industry that has a high turnover rate, because it’s so fast-paced, so dangerous, and workers are being exploited. This is a really big fight, and we’re really fighting to make change throughout the industry.

AMY GOODMAN: How dangerous is it? I mean, you’re talking about they are required to buy their own PPE, personal protective equipment, out of their meager salaries?

KIM CORDOVA: So, what’s happening is, is that JBS is keeping a very low inventory of personal protective equipment. So, when workers are hired, they’re either provided initially with equipment that may be used, damaged, doesn’t fit them. And if you are maybe a size large, and they give you a 5X, it’s easy to get ripped. They’re working with — at a fast pace, with sharp equipment, disassembling a very large animal. So, if something happens to your equipment, and it’s stolen, it’s damaged, it doesn’t fit you, your check is being garnished to replace that equipment. And some workers are working with damaged equipment because they can’t afford the garnishment, which puts our members’ lives at risk.

AMY GOODMAN: And you have a thousand —

KIM CORDOVA: And it’s unlawful.

AMY GOODMAN: You have a thousand Haitian workers at the Greeley plant that have filed a class-action lawsuit for discriminatory practices at JBS that push them to work at dangerously fast line speeds?

KIM CORDOVA: Yes, yes, including allegations of human trafficking. There’s been, you know, allegations of child labor use here. There was a lawsuit over that. It’s wage theft that’s happening with these garnishments with these workers.

And there is a lot of issues around bathroom breaks in this plant. I mean, we’ve heard about this within the industry. It happens at JBS, where workers are not allowed to use the bathroom, have a restroom — proper restroom break. They’re retaliated against if they ask to use the bathroom. They’ve been disciplined over that issue. It’s really horrible working conditions for the largest food producer in the world.

AMY GOODMAN: And, Caitlyn Clark, you’re director at Essential Workers for Democracy. Put this in a national context. I mean, you have the broader immigrant workers movement, including places like Omaha, Nebraska, and also just this whole issue of the workplace conditions and how the immigrant crackdown affects their work every day.

CAITLYN CLARK: Yeah. So, JBS is one of the largest meatpacking companies in the world, and 5% of all beef consumed in the United States comes just from this JBS Greeley plant that’s currently on strike. These workers literally feed America. And yet, JBS has paid over $100 million in court settlements, legal fees and fines in just the last year alone for illegal collusion with other meatpackers in the industry to repress worker wages and increase prices for consumers.

And this is really a historic strike. These workers are standing up not just for their own plant, but for the meatpacking industry as a whole, which, as you mentioned, is an industry that employs predominantly immigrant workers. And what we saw at JBS when these workers took their strike authorization vote several weeks ago was that several immigration officers were stationed outside of the plant on that day. But these workers ultimately voted to authorize the strike by 99%.

And being out on the picket line, it’s just incredible to see workers from all around the world teaching each other chants in their languages, playing music together, dancing, sharing food. And it’s really an incredible just picture of solidarity across the barriers that the meatpackers typically try to use to divide workers and prevent them from organizing. But now we’re seeing lots of solidarity on the line.

AMY GOODMAN: Caitlyn Clark, director at Essential Workers for Democracy, and Kim Cordova, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7. We’ll continue to cover this strike. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks for joining us.