Union: Greeley JBS beef plant expected to return to operations

GREELEY — The early shift Wednesday was cancelled at JBS USA Inc.’s Greeley beef processing plant but the union representing workers there are expected to work as normal for the second and third shift of the day, according to United Food & Commercial Workers Local 7.

Shifts were cancelled this week due to impacts from cyberattacks over the Memorial Day Weekend.

About 1,500 workers were expected to be affected by the first shift cancellation on Wednesday. Tuesday’s cancellations impacted about double that number of employees. 

“As the union for JBS meatpacking workers across the country, UFCW is pleased JBS is working around the clock to resolve this, and UFCW is urging JBS to ensure that all of its meatpacking workers receive their contractually guaranteed pay as these plant shutdowns continue,” UFCW president Marc Perrone said Tuesday in a prepared statement. “UFCW is calling on JBS to work with state and federal leaders to help get JBS meatpacking workers back on the job as soon as possible so these essential workers can continue to keep our country’s food supply fully operational and secure as this pandemic continues.”

JBS has provided little insight into the specific impacts of the attack. 

After the breach was discovered Sunday, “the company took immediate action, suspending all affected systems, notifying authorities and activating the company’s global network of IT professionals and third-party experts to resolve the situation,” JBS said in a statement Monday. “The company’s backup servers were not affected, and it is actively working with an incident response firm to restore its systems as soon as possible.”

According to a Bloomberg report, the attack and its related slaughterhouse shutdowns wiped out almost a fifth of the United States’ beef production.

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