The meat comes at an alarming speed.
Workers at the JBS meatpacking plant in Greeley stand along a production line, responsible for trimming fat from beef as it moves along the line.
When the meat arrives in front of them, workers — many of them from Haiti — hook it with one hand and slice it with a knife held in their other hand.
But the meat comes at such a rapid pace — some 430 head of cattle per hour — they can barely keep up. Some cut themselves with their knives while trying to trim fat. Others clutch the hooks for so many hours that they can’t even open their fingers, permanently stuck in a claw-like position. Bathroom breaks are rarely allowed.
“We’re just asking to be treated like a human being,” one Haitian worker said, speaking to The Denver Post on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job at JBS.
The employee described that workplace environment in a charge filed Friday with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging JBS — the world’s largest meatpacking company — intentionally discriminates against Haitian workers by subjecting them to poor working conditions.
“What’s alleged here is a level of corporate greed and cruelty that we can’t allow to stand,” said David Seligman, executive director of Towards Justice, a legal aid nonprofit, and the attorney representing the worker in his EEOC claim.
“Last quarter, JBS reported profits of over $300 million, and yet in search of even more profits, it’s targeting hundreds of Haitian workers, right here in Colorado, with grueling and outrageous working conditions, seemingly because they’re vulnerable and easy for JBS to exploit,” he said. “That’s prohibited by our bedrock employment discrimination laws.”
JBS representatives did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment
The worker arrived in Colorado in March 2024 after hearing about the JBS job from a friend. He paid $320 to a recruiter for application fees, two weeks of stay at a Greeley motel and transportation from the airport.
The recruiter sent him to the Rainbow Motel in Greeley, where JBS had an agreement to house new workers. The conditions were “extremely bad,” the worker said. Five of them were supposed to share the room with just one bed. The room, meanwhile, reeked of smoke mixed with other putrid smells, he said, forcing the workers to sleep with blankets over their heads.
The motel would sometimes be without heat or water, the Wall Street Journal reported last month. Workers cooked meals on hot plates on the carpet.
The worker took the “B shift” at JBS, working 3 to 11 p.m., alongside some 500 other Haitian laborers.
The line moves so fast, the worker said, that before he’s done with one piece of meat another has already arrived. Workers are stuck between moving so quickly they risk cutting themselves or being disciplined for not keeping up.
“It’s definitely dangerous,” he said.
Since Haitian workers arrived at the Greeley facility, JBS has accelerated the so-called “chain speeds” on the production line, the worker’s EEOC charge alleges. The 430 head of cattle per hour mark a substantial uptick from historical chain speeds and that of the “A shift,” when speeds are often around 250 to 300 head of cattle per hour, the charge states.
Workers are paid hourly, so faster line speeds allow the company to process the same amount of meat at a lower cost.
“But it also poses extraordinary human costs,” the EEOC filing reads.
JBS also limits workers’ bathroom breaks, rarely permitting Haitian laborers to leave production lines, the worker said. One worker even urinated in her pants on the production line while processing meat because her supervisor wouldn’t let her go to the restroom, the charge alleges.
Other employees — who are not Haitian — are allowed to use the restroom right away, the worker said.
Many laborers are afraid to speak up for fear of losing their jobs, he said. They know they cannot go back to Haiti, so they try and make the best of a difficult job.
“I decided to see if we can get better treatment or something good can come out of this,” he said.
Employees have long complained about the working conditions at Greeley’s JBS facility.
Last month, a union representing workers at the plant called for federal, state and local law enforcement and regulatory bodies to hold the company accountable.
The union, UFCW Local 7, accused the company of human trafficking via TikTok; charging workers to live in squalid conditions; threats and intimidation against workers and their families; dangerously high production line speeds; and withholding mail from workers.
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“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 statement.
In 2021, JBS paid $5.5 million after the EEOC found the JBS plant in Greeley denied workers prayer breaks in the evening during the Muslim holiday month of Ramadan.
That same year, the U.S. Department of Labor cited JBS for exposing employees to safety hazards at the Greeley facilities, following the death of a worker. The fatality occurred after several other incidents at the same facility, including a worker who suffered an arm amputation, another worker who suffered laceration injuries and a worker who was exposed to a thermal burn hazard.
And at least seven workers at the JBS plant in Greeley died during the COVID-19 pandemic, part of a wave of worker deaths at meatpacking facilities around the country. The deaths prompted a congressional investigation into the largest meatpacking companies.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued JBS a $15,615 fine for those COVID-19 deaths.
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