Haitian workers harmed by faster line speeds, overcrowded housing conditions, lack of training in native language
A lawsuit filed today against JBS accuses the leading global meat processing company of exploiting over 1,000 Haitian workers recruited under false pretenses for its Greeley, Colorado plant. The complaint alleges a systemic pattern of deceptive recruitment practices and subjecting Haitian workers to unsafe and inhumane working and living conditions.
Starting in late 2023, a JBS Human Resources manager and his agent began recruiting Haitians via TikTok, promising employment without English language requirements and employer-provided housing while they got set up in Greeley. These false promises led hopeful workers to incur significant travel costs and pay unjust recruitment fees to secure positions.
Upon arrival, these recruits were made to stay in one-bed rooms in a nearby motel with anywhere from three to eleven other Haitians, regardless of gender. Many of the recruits were forced to sleep on the floor on stained carpeting, with only a blanket for bedding, and some of the rooms lacked adequate heat in the winter.
Once hired, Haitians at JBS were subjected to more dangerous and degrading conditions than their non-Haitian co-workers, in an already perilous industry. Haitian workers were not given training in a language they understood, but rather in English or Spanish. The complaint filed today alleges that JBS falsified the results of safety tests given to Haitians following that training in order to get them on the production line as quickly as possible. Inadequately trained in JBS safety protocols, Haitian workers suffered serious injuries once beginning the job.
JBS assigned most of the Haitian workers to the late shift and then cranked up the speed of the production line to unprecedented levels. Workers in this shift have cattle coming at them as quickly as every ten seconds, for as long as ten hours, and are routinely denied breaks to use the bathroom, causing some to soil themselves at work. Other Haitian workers limit their intake of food and water in order to avoid bathroom breaks and keep up.
Today’s suit is a class action on behalf of Haitian workers employed by JBS after November 1, 2023. One plaintiff had previously filed a discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over JBS’s actions toward Haitian workers. In addition to the discrimination claims, the complaint alleges that JBS violated Colorado’s laws governing wages, and that its actions toward the plaintiffs represent unjust enrichment and civil theft, among other claims. The plaintiffs are represented by FarmSTAND, Nichols Kaster, PLLP, and Towards Justice.
“When I first saw a video recruiting Haitian workers to the JBS plant in Greeley, I was excited for a great opportunity. But immediately upon arrival to an overcrowded hotel room, I knew something was wrong, and that was only the beginning,” said Nesly Pierre, a plaintiff in this suit. “I’m a part of today’s lawsuit because I don’t want workers – my fellow Haitians or any group of workers who may come to the U.S. in the future – to suffer in the way that I have.”
Evidence presented in the complaint filed today suggests that JBS management was fully aware of both the exploitative recruitment practices and the deplorable housing conditions but continued its aggressive, deceptive hiring spree of Haitian workers in order to secure a vulnerable workforce. In December 2023, a supervisor at Greeley told a group of Somali workers that they would be replaced with a new cohort of workers because the new workers “don’t pray and they don’t need to go to the bathroom.”
Many Haitians working in the U.S. are doing so with humanitarian parole or Temporary Protected Status, an immigrant designation reserved for those who cannot return to their home countries safely due to dangerous or extraordinary conditions like war, famine or natural disaster. Late in the 2024 campaign, President Trump and Vice President Vance focused xenophobic insults on Haitians living in Ohio.
“JBS saw Haitian workers as uniquely exploitable, then discriminated against them for the sake of its bottom line. The harm stemming from the choice JBS made will stay with the plaintiffs in this case forever,” said Amal Bouhabib, Senior Staff Attorney at FarmSTAND and counsel for the class in this suit. “JBS USA’s CEO has said that his job feels so fun, it doesn’t even feel like working. Meanwhile, his Haitian workers are suffering life-altering injuries due to the inhumane conditions at the Greeley plant. These workers are bravely standing up and asserting their humanity to JBS through today’s action.”
“No worker should experience the exploitation and abuse that our clients have endured,” said Juno Turner, Litigation Director at Towards Justice. “That these workers are treated so cruelly amid the current unprecedented attack on immigrant communities just adds insult to literal injury.”