Union blasts JBS after Wall Street Journal report on treatment of Haitian meatpackers 

GREELEY — The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 is calling on local, state and federal law enforcement to investigate Greeley-based meatpacking giant JBS USA Holdings Inc. in the wake of a Wall Street Journal report published Monday that highlights the substandard living conditions faced by Haitian immigrants working in the company’s Northern Colorado plant.

“What has happened to these workers, who came to our country legally in search of a better life for themselves and their families, is completely unacceptable,” UFCW Local 7 president Kim Cordova said in a prepared statement Tuesday. “We call on all relevant law enforcement and regulatory agencies to conduct a thorough investigation into the treatment of our members, and we will continue to do everything we can to bring full accountability.”

According to WSJ, JBS paid for hotel rooms in Greeley where Haitian workers lived “as many as eight to a room,” sleeping and cooking meals on the floor. When the motel terminated its deal with JBS workers in April, workers for the establishment told WSJ that they were left with $40,000 in damages, which JBS paid. 

Other Haitian JBS employees, who UFCW Local 7 says are legally authorized to live and work in the United States lived, sometimes 30 at a time, in part of a duplex rented by a JBS human-resources supervisor, which was at times without heat or water, WSJ reported. The workers were charged rent to live in the apartment. The supervisor was eventually fined thousands of dollars when his landlord discovered how many people were living in the unit. 

“JBS does not charge team members or applicants for any pre-employment services, including transportation, application, pre-hire medical requirements, or housing, nor do we require them to live in any specific location. Any allegations of poor living conditions are unacceptable and upsetting,” a JBS spokesperson told BizWest in an email. “We want all of our employees to have access to safe housing and the opportunity to create a better life for themselves and their families.”

WSJ reported that a go-between, a Haitian-born man used by JBS to funnel other Haitian immigrants from other parts of the country into Greeley meatpacking jobs, was accused of threatening workers who complained about the living conditions with arrest. This person, not an official employee of JBS, was eventually banned from the plant and reported to the authorities, JBS told the newspaper. He later opened a Haitian-food store in Greeley. 

“JBS takes the safety and welfare of all our team members seriously,” JBS’ spokesperson told BizWest. “Since being made aware of this situation, we have put new HR leaders in place at the facility and added new recruitment training programs to ensure our teams follow JBS’ strict hiring compliance policies. We are also working with the UFCW International to educate prospective and current team members about our hiring policies enterprise wide.”

After WSJ raised questions about JBS’ treatment of immigrant workers, the meatpacking giant fired its human-resources director at the Greeley plant, the newspaper reported. The supervisor involved in providing housing for Haitian workers was reportedly suspended and reprimanded, but not fired. 

“The company knew about these tactics — and in fact paid for workers to live in squalor conditions at a local motel — and turned a blind eye until they were questioned by the press,” Cordova’s statement said. “One of the main individuals involved in this terrible treatment is still employed by JBS.”

The union, which represents about 3,300 members at the JBS plant in Greeley, accuses the meatpacker of “numerous cases of abusive practices both within and outside of the workplace, including management-led human trafficking utilizing the social media platform TikTok; charging immigrant workers for company-provided rent in squalor conditions, job applications, and transportation; threats and intimidation against workers and their families abroad; dangerously high production line speeds; and withholding mail including medical bills and important paperwork.”

The WSJ report is not the first time in recent months that working conditions in and around JBS’ Greeley facilities have been scrutinized. 

BizWest reported in February that JBS was cutting ties with Packers Sanitation Services Inc., a cleaning company deemed by the federal government to be a repeat offender of child-labor regulations.

PSSI paid $1.5 million in civil penalties last year after federal regulators “found the company employed at least 102 children — from 13 to 17 years of age — in hazardous occupations and had them working overnight shifts at 13 meat processing facilities in eight states,” the department said in a 2023 news release. 

Investigators determined that four underaged workers were employed by PSSI in the Greeley JBS facility. Dozens more children, some of whom were found to be “working with hazardous chemicals and cleaning meat processing equipment including back saws, brisket saws and head splitters,” worked for PSSI at JBS plants in Nebraska and Minnesota, the labor department said.

Editor’s note: This story has been update with comment from JBS.

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