Haitians recruited on TikTok for meatpacking jobs sue JBS for workplace abuses 

For more than a decade, JBS Greeley—a division of JBS USA Food Company—relied almost exclusively on refugee and immigrant workers to operate its meatpacking plant. Now, more than 1,000 Haitian workers JBS recruited allege in a new class action lawsuit filed Tuesday that the meat processing company discriminated against them and subjected them to hazardous working conditions.

“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,” Nesly Pierre, a plaintiff in this suit, said in court documents.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Haitians who worked at the JBS plant in Greeley, Colorado, after Nov. 1, 2023. The suit alleges the company targeted Haitians as a vulnerable workforce and then subjected them to harsher conditions than non-Haitian workers. 

Lawyers for the Haitian plaintiffs also note that during the 2024 campaign, President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance targeted Haitians in Ohio with xenophobic rhetoric.

“JBS saw Haitian workers as uniquely exploitable, then discriminated against them for the sake of its bottom line,” said Amal Bouhabib, senior staff attorney at FarmSTAND and counsel for the class in this suit. 

“The harm stemming from the choice JBS made will stay with the plaintiffs in this case forever,” he added.”

JBS has not issued any public statements about the suit as of Sunday.

The litigation is now a race against a looming immigration deadline. With TPS for Haitians set to expire in February 2026, the workers risk being deported before their claims can be fully adjudicated. While some plaintiffs have applied for asylum as a safeguard, attorneys describe the move as a “gamble” under the current administration.

The suit also harkens back to similar cases in other states, such as Ohio, of newcomer Haitians being recruited with promises of housing, only to be left in squalor.

Seeking out vulnerable immigrants 

In the lawsuit, the claimants say that JBS, one of the world’s largest animal protein producers, intentionally and strategically recruited immigrants seeking humanitarian relief to fill its workforce.

After a series of immigration raids in 2006, the company saw its workforce shrink by 10% almost overnight. To offset ongoing losses and maintain productivity, JBS—whose annual revenue tops $73 billion—began working directly with resettlement agencies and local service organizations to recruit immigrants with work authorization, the suit alleges. 

Initial recruits came from Somalia, Eritrea and the Congo, followed later by workers from Myanmar, South Sudan and the Middle East.

The recruitment strategy worked. 

Within a year of the raid, Greeley’s foreign-born population grew to more than 12 percent, a 60 percent increase from seven years earlier.

But after a series of labor and legal challenges between 2020 and 2022—including COVID-19 outbreaks, worker-led collective bargaining efforts, and a federal lawsuit over the unlawful employment of children—JBS once again found itself in need of new workers.

The company’s solution: recently arrived Haitians with humanitarian parole or Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which allow them to work legally.

“They don’t pray and they don’t need to go to the bathroom,” one JBS Greeley supervisor allegedly told a team of Somali workers about Haitians in December 2023.

The new recruits also were not part of covered by existing union bargaining agreements, the suit states. 

TikTok promises led to squalid housing and dangerous shifts

According to the lawsuit, recruitment began in late 2023, after Mackenson Remy, a Haitian immigrant living in Colorado, met with JBS Greeley HR recruiter and supervisor Edmond Ebah. The pair devised a plan to use Remy’s TikTok to recruit Haitians for at least 60 openings slaughtering, butchering and packaging meat.

Using footage from inside the plant, Remy created a TikTok promising jobs with no English-language requirements and employer-provided housing while workers settled in Greeley. Haitians who had initially settled in Indiana, Ohio, Florida and other states saw the videos and decided to go west, spending thousands to make the trip.

“When I first saw a video recruiting Haitian workers to the JBS plant in Greeley, I was excited for a great opportunity,” Pierre said. “But immediately upon arrival to an overcrowded hotel room, I knew something was wrong, and that was only the beginning.”

The lawsuit alleges those promises were false and that workers incurred hefty travel expenses and paid improper recruitment fees to secure the jobs.

Although recruiters promised them that JBS would “take care” of their housing, workers described the living conditions as “squalid” and “inhospitable.” When they arrived, recruits were allegedly crammed by the dozens into the Rainbow Motel, where as many as 11 people shared a single room with only one bed and one bathroom. 

Pierre likened the conditions to a “jail cell,” saying workers were forced to sleep on the floor near the door where frigid winter air seeped in. Others reported “rancid” smells and a lack of kitchen facilities that left some unable to eat for days.

As the motel reached capacity, recruiters reportedly moved the overflow—up to 60 people—into a single 5-bedroom house that sometimes lacked electricity, heat and running water in the winter. 

Despite these conditions, the complaint alleges, the workers were charged exorbitant weekly fees, ranging from $60 for a spot on the floor of the house to $500 for a shared motel room—a situation the union has called exploitative and akin to human trafficking.

Unsafe conditions, treatment at plant detailed

At the plant, Haitian workers were allegedly subjected to more dangerous and degrading conditions than their co-workers. 

According to the lawsuit and union reports, JBS allegedly segregated newly recruited Haitian workers onto the “B Shift”—the afternoon shift from 3:00 pm to 11:30 pm—and subjected them to dangerous working conditions to maximize production. The union describes a “White Bone” program instituted by management, which demanded workers strip meat to the bone at this accelerated pace, leading to severe repetitive stress injuries. 

While industry standards suggest a maximum safe line speed of 390 head of cattle per hour, the complaint alleges managers pushed the Haitian-staffed shift to speeds as high as 440 head per hour. 

Pierre reported that the line moved so relentlessly that he could not unclench his hand from his meat hook, leaving his fingers permanently stuck in a “clawing position.”

The lawsuit further alleges that JBS systematically compromised worker safety by refusing to provide training in Creole. Despite knowing the recruits did not speak English or Spanish, the company conducted safety orientations in those languages and directed supervisors to falsify testing records to claim the workers understood them. This practice reportedly allowed JBS to rush workers onto the “kill floor” without the knowledge necessary to protect themselves from dangerous machinery and chemicals.

Beyond physical hazards, the complaint describes a discriminatory environment where basic human needs were ignored. Haitian workers claim they were routinely denied unscheduled bathroom breaks, a right afforded to other employees, forcing some to urinate on themselves or deliberately dehydrate and starve themselves to avoid needing the restroom during shifts. 

When injuries occurred, the company allegedly obstructed access to care. In one instance, when Carlos Saint Aubin, a plaintiff in the class action lawsuit, suffered severe chest pain, he was reportedly given a “hot towel” by the on-site clinic and sent back to the line. 

The union also contends that JBS coerced workers into signing waivers in English they did not understand, effectively forcing them to forfeit their rights to workers’ compensation. Further, the complaint alleges, JBS management was aware of both the exploitative recruitment practices and the housing conditions, but continued hiring Haitian workers to secure what it describes as a compliant workforce.

“JBS USA’s CEO has said that his job feels so fun, it doesn’t even feel like working,” Bouhabib said. 

“Meanwhile, his Haitian workers are suffering life-altering injuries due to the inhumane conditions at the Greeley plant,” Bouhabib added. “These workers are bravely standing up and asserting their humanity to JBS through today’s action.”

Juno Turner, litigation director at Towards Justice, said the treatment described in the lawsuit reflects broader challenges facing immigrant workers.

“No worker should experience the exploitation and abuse that our clients have endured,” Turner said in a statement. “That these workers are treated so cruelly amid the current unprecedented attack on immigrant communities just adds insult to literal injury.”

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