Why Meatpacking Workers, Some Facing Deportation, Voted to Strike
The workers at the JBS plant in Greeley, Colorado, voted overwhelmingly for a strike last month.
In early February, more than 1,000 Haitian migrants employed at the unionized JBS meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colorado, faced imminent deportation, as the Trump administration fought in federal court to revoke their temporary protected status. Many of the Haitians say they were brought to JBS as part of a human-trafficking scheme concocted by a supervisor in the company’s HR department. (A JBS spokesperson told me there was no evidence tying the company to the union’s claims.)
Among them is Carlos Saint Aubin, who fled from the gangs in Port-au-Prince to Brazil, where he began a harrowing journey on foot—across the Darien Gap between Panama and Colombia, north to the US border. He came to Colorado after seeing TikTok videos promising jobs and housing. Instead, he ended up among the hundreds of Haitians packed more than six to a room at a roadside motel after working long hours. Now Saint Aubin is one of the lead plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit alleging that the Haitians on the evening shift there were forced to work as much as 50 percent faster than those on the daytime crew.
On February 4, less than 48 hours after a federal judge blocked their deportation, 99 percent of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union members at the facility voted to strike in what could become the first sanctioned walkout at a major meatpacking plant in decades. —Ted Genoways
Support independent journalism that does not fall in line
Even before February 28, the reasons for Donald Trump’s imploding approval rating were abundantly clear: untrammeled corruption and personal enrichment to the tune of billions of dollars during an affordability crisis, a foreign policy guided only by his own derelict sense of morality, and the deployment of a murderous campaign of occupation, detention, and deportation on American streets.
Now an undeclared, unauthorized, unpopular, and unconstitutional war of aggression against Iran has spread like wildfire through the region and into Europe. A new “forever war”—with an ever-increasing likelihood of American troops on the ground—may very well be upon us.
As we’ve seen over and over, this administration uses lies, misdirection, and attempts to flood the zone to justify its abuses of power at home and abroad. Just as Trump, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth offer erratic and contradictory rationales for the attacks on Iran, the administration is also spreading the lie that the upcoming midterm elections are under threat from noncitizens on voter rolls. When these lies go unchecked, they become the basis for further authoritarian encroachment and war.
In these dark times, independent journalism is uniquely able to uncover the falsehoods that threaten our republic—and civilians around the world—and shine a bright light on the truth.
The Nation’s experienced team of writers, editors, and fact-checkers understands the scale of what we’re up against and the urgency with which we have to act. That’s why we’re publishing critical reporting and analysis of the war on Iran, ICE violence at home, new forms of voter suppression emerging in the courts, and much more.
But this journalism is possible only with your support.
This March, The Nation needs to raise $50,000 to ensure that we have the resources for reporting and analysis that sets the record straight and empowers people of conscience to organize. Will you donate today?
