At the JBS plant in Greeley, Colorado, 3,800 workers are entering their third week on the picket line. This is the first strike at a major U.S. slaughterhouse in forty years, and the stakes could not be higher. While JBS and Tyson Foods report surging profits, the people who actually process the nation’s caloric baseline are being robbed of wages and subjected to unsafe line speeds. The company’s response has been predictable: shift production elsewhere and accelerate the push for automated robotic butchery.

This isn't a simple wage dispute; it is the automation of the American table. JBS is currently fighting a race-based discrimination suit brought by Haitian nationals who allege they were treated as disposable tools. The meatpacking industry has long relied on the most vulnerable laborers to keep the hooks moving, but now that those workers are demanding dignity, the owners are looking to replace them with steel arms that don't ask for healthcare.

Further north in Wisconsin, Teamsters at B&G Foods have also authorised a strike. The facility that produces your Cream of Wheat and Ortega sauce is the next battleground. These corporations are betting they can outlast the hunger of their employees. They are using the current supply chain volatility as a cover to hike prices while simultaneously starving the workforce that keeps the shelves full. If the working class loses this fight in the slaughterhouses, the next thing on the menu will be total corporate control of the food supply.