Fort Morgan, CO — On Monday, August 3, nearly 1500 Cargill workers in Fort Morgan voted on a proposed contract negotiated by Cargill Meat Solutions and Teamsters Local 455. The vote comes after the employer locked out the union workers for nearly three months. When the ballots were counted, the workers had voted to reject the proposed agreement by a margin of 25 votes, 749 to 724.

In anticipation of a strike, Cargill stopped processing beef on April 23 and later locked out the Teamsters Local 455 members on May 20. Before the lockout, the plant had already gone nearly a month without processing cattle, as Cargill directed cattle to other facilities. The Fort Morgan plant processed roughly 4000 cattle per day last year. Cargill reported $154 billion in revenue in 2025 and was ranked by Forbes as the largest privately-held company in the United States.

In contract negotiations, the workers had proposed $5 hourly wage increases over the course of a five-year contract. “If they truly respected us and cared about the work we do they wouldn't have a problem giving us a dollar a year raise. Without us they have nothing,” said Korin Turner, a Cargill meatpacker. The tentative agreement reached between Teamsters Local 455 on July 28 offered $2.15 total in wage increases, which was the same amount that Cargill had offered back in in May.

Guaranteed hours became a central point of opposition to the tentative agreement. Workers said the proposed agreement would increase the number of weeks in which they could be guaranteed only 32 hours of pay from ten weeks under the previous contract to 20 weeks. “For us to drive to work five days a week and only get 32 hours, that's barely enough to live. We have kids. We need to support our families,” said Sarah Webber, a Cargill fabrication worker. “Twenty weeks out of the year only 32 hours is a big slap in the face. Our previous contract only had ten weeks a year. They doubled it in this contract.” Some workers reported working even fewer hours.

“We weren't even getting the 32 hours, only 26 or 28 hours,” said Lucilia Fuentes, a Teamsters-represented trainer on the killing floor.

Safety was another concern raised by many Cargill workers during the lockout. Several picketing Cargill employees reported suffering serious injuries involving meat-processing equipment, and multiple workers at the picket had missing fingers or visible scars on their hands.

Don Wireman, a Cargill worker who sorts the meat after it's been packaged, said, “There's boxes stacked so high they fall over on people and they can't move until the person next to them is unburying them, digging them out.”

“We have three coworkers that are missing half their fingers,” said Makayla Wilson, a Teamsters-represented control room operator at Cargill.

During the lockout, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) paid workers $1000 per week, with an additional $250 per week coming from Teamsters Local 455. The union payments were substantially higher than the weekly earnings many workers reported receiving before the lockout. “We're getting $1250 a week right now,” said Fuentes, when interviewed one month into the lockout. “Before we were making four to five hundred a week.”

On July 20, Teamsters Local 455 stopped its $250 weekly payments and encouraged workers to apply for unemployment. “I'm getting $1250,” said Wireman. He explained that $1000 was coming from the IBT and $250 from Teamsters Local 455. “But starting the 20th, so, next week, we're only getting $1000 because they're not paying the $250.”

On August 4, one day after workers rejected the proposed contract, the IBT announced that the $1000-per-week payments would be reduced to five times each member's monthly union dues. Based on monthly dues ranging from $58.75 to $72.50, that would reduce weekly payments to approximately $294 to $363.

After workers voted down the agreement negotiated between Cargill and Teamsters Local 455 on August 3, a group of workers started a petition demanding a re-vote.

“We had a large group of members that felt like there was some misunderstanding through the language barriers,” said Chris Suazo, a Teamsters business agent representing the 1700 locked-out Cargill workers, among whom 27 different languages are spoken. “They took it upon themselves to start a petition,” said Suazo.”

“Over a thousand signed the petition,” said Servando Payan, another Teamsters business agent.

Suazo said Teamsters officials are taking a different approach to the second vote. “[We're] being very clear what a no vote would entail and what a yes vote would entail. We're now doing the ballots in their languages – Haitian Creole, Arabic, Spanish, French, Somali, Tigrinya.”

Teamsters officials defended the proposed agreement, saying they believed they had secured the best possible contract. “I believe our group has done the beef industry a great service,” said Suazo. “We've done everything possible to support them and put the workers first.” Payan said, “We feel comfortable saying we walked away from the table without any additional money on the table.”

Teamsters’ officials have scheduled a second vote for August 17, where workers will once again decide whether to accept the proposed contract while the nearly three-month lockout continues.

Editor’s note: The agreement was approved on August 17.

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Fort Morgan, CO – On the morning of May 20, an hour and a half drive northeast of Denver, Cargill Meat Solutions locked out 1700 workers represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. This lockout comes after months of negotiations for a new contract, during which Cargill, the largest privately-owned company in the United States, repeatedly refused to give necessary wage increases and health benefits to its workers.

The collective bargaining agreement between Cargill and the Teamsters expired in late February, with Cargill initially offering raises totaling 70 cents over the next five years. Over the course of several weeks of negotiations, representatives of Teamsters Local 455 were able to raise the employer’s offer to include pay increases of $2.15, along with a $1250 ratification bonus. On April 23, Cargill stopped production and demanded a vote on their most recent proposal.

“We continued to negotiate throughout the day,” said Servando Payan, a Teamsters Business Agent who took part in the negotiations, “They asked for a vote but it wasn’t a last best, and final offer.”

In union negotiations sometimes a boss will name an offer as their “last best and final” meaning that they will not move further and signaling that workers should vote on that deal, either to accept it, or to refuse it, which often signals a strike coming soon.

Cargill halted production, paying their workers to stay home until May 19, when they removed the $1250 ratification bonus from their latest proposal and refused to raise wages. Throughout this, the Cargill workers maintained their demand for $1 per year in raises, for a total of $5 over a five-year contract, or, preferably, $3 over a three-year contract.

A vote was held and of the over 1500 workers that cast a ballot, over 85% voted down the company’s newest proposal. The company then initiated a lockout the following day. As a response, workers started a picket line in. On June 1, workers continued to picket outside the Cargill meatpacking plant, calling for better wages and working conditions even after weeks of being locked out.

Concrete barricades were set up by Cargill and next to them workers shouted “¡Sí, se puede!” as neighbors and community members drove by honking in support. Local food vendors prepared food for the workers while volunteers passed out water. Rank-and-file Teamsters from UPS in Commerce City, several of whom were members of the Denver District of Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), visited Fort Morgan to stand in solidarity with the workers.

On the picket line, Imam Kasim, a religious leader among the largely Muslim workforce, spoke about the daily religious discrimination workers face. He spoke about how Cargill regularly denies workers the ability to take prayer breaks. He also spoke of harassment from supervisors and cases of workers being prevented from leaving the disassembly line to use the bathroom. “They made him wait 30 minutes,” said Kasim while describing one such example. “The other guy wasn’t allowed to use [the] bathroom and pissed himself.”

On June 12, several members of FRSO again traveled to Fort Morgan to stand in solidarity with the locked-out Cargill workers. Many workers had gathered in a nearby park. FRSO members passed out cold water and fruit while talking to workers and Teamsters representatives. In expressing gratitude for the food and water, workers spoke the language they were comfortable in, whether Spanish, French, Somali or Haitian Creole. One Cargill maintenance worker spoke about how he was unhappy with how long the lockout had lasted but said he was glad that the union is taking care of everyone.

Union representatives spoke about the past few months of negotiations with Cargill, as well as what they described as collusion between the “Big Four” beef processing companies, which are Cargill, JBS, Tyson Foods, and National Beef, which together control around 85% of all cattle processing in the United States.

Teamsters officials said Cargill’s initial contract proposal offered raises and bonuses very similar to those rejected earlier this year by 3800 JBS workers in Greeley. Those workers went on a three-week strike in March to demand a better deal. Teamster officials said similar contract proposals are being offered at meatpacking plants across the country.

“These other deals are based on different costs of living, from Nebraska to Alaska,” said Teamsters Business Agent Servando Payan, “Those wages don’t make sense here.”

The Teamsters Food Processing Division is also looking into possible antitrust issues tied to the company’s conduct. Cargill and Tyson Foods were recently forced to pay a combined $87.5 million in antitrust settlements after claims that they conspired to keep beef prices high led to a class-action lawsuit. The Department of Justice has also announced the start of an antitrust investigation into major beef producers, including Cargill and JBS.

Payan spoke about the immense solidarity the Cargill workers have shown in their fight against the multi-billion dollar meatpacking company stating, “We have 27 different languages out here,” said Payan. “With so much diversity in race and culture, they came together collectively to vote down this contract.”

At the end of the day, Salem Chadwick, one of the FRSO members that came to stand in solidarity, said, “These workers have a tough battle ahead of them, but their fight is necessary. Together they can overcome any obstacle.”

A few days earlier, on June 10, Teamsters Local 455 filed unfair labor practice charges against the company, saying Cargill unlawfully cut off workers’ access to pay and benefits.

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