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JBS
targets its Haitian workers in Greeley with grueling work conditions,
employee alleges in EEOC complaint
Meatpacking
plant has accelerated so-called “chain speeds” on production line, filing
alleges
PUBLISHED:
October 11, 2024 at 12:40 p.m.
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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