This morning, Coloradans for the Common Good issued a joint letter with Towards Justice and UFCW Local 7 urging Colorado's Attorney General Phil Weiser to investigate the workplace safety and public health crisis that has plagued JBS USA, Inc. (“JBS”) workers and their communities in and around Greeley, Colorado during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) recently issued a citation to JBS and proposed a $15,615 penalty against the company for its “serious violations” at JBS’s Greeley facility. We fear that this meager and insulting penalty, which amounts to only around $2500 per worker life lost at that plant, will only embolden JBS’s brazen prioritization of its extraordinary profits over the health and safety of working Coloradans.

See full letter here.

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CCG's faith leaders emphasized the moral imperative to act to protect workers, their families and the surrounding community:

“The persistent life-threatening working conditions at JBS remind us that the Book of Exodus, in our Sacred Scriptures, begins with an account of the brutal and increasingly dangerous conditions under which the Israelites labored as slaves in Egypt. As with the ancient Israelites, today's meatpacking workers are fundamental to providing a vital product to society, while their employers profit from these dangerous tasks.

"JBS workers—like many essential workers, communities of color, and immigrant and refugee populations—are being treated as disposable. Workers and family members have died. If we don’t listen to those who cry out for justice, we enable the oppressors. We urge Attorney General Weiser to join us now to liberate these Colorado workers from oppression."

See full statement from faith leaders here