In today’s news and commentary, meatpacking workers ratify a new contract, the NLRB proposes to settle a major Amazon contractor case, and the NLRB’s new docketing system is leading to questionable case dismissals.

On Sunday, members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, which represents about 3,800 meatpacking employees at a JBS meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colorado, ratified a new contract with JBS, the largest meat company in the world and the largest beef processor in the United States. Workers at the Greeley plant, one of the largest meatpacking plants in the country, went on strike for three weeks starting on March 16. It was the first strike at a slaughterhouse in the United States since 1985. The new contract includes wage increases over two years “some 33% higher” than what JBS offered before the strike, a $750 one-time bonus, and an agreement from JBS to pay for protective equipment. The union agreed to withdraw seven unfair labor practice charges against JBS. “The contract is significantly different” from JBS’s last offer,” said Kim Cordova, President of UFCW Local 7.

Next, the NLRB proposed to settle a major case against Amazon for its refusal to bargain with a group of delivery drivers employed by one of its former delivery service partners in California, Battle-Tested Strategies. Originally, the NLRB General Counsel argued that Amazon was a joint employer of the drivers and was thus obligated to bargain with the union. At a September 2025 trial before an NLRB judge, the government argued that Amazon had “overwhelming control” over these subcontracted drivers, and that the delivery service partners were “essentially captive delivery companies created at the direction and assistance of Amazon.” But the government’s proposed settlement, which was sent Sunday to the judge hearing the case, would require Amazon to provide two weeks’ pay to the drivers, but would not require the company to admit to wrongdoing or to be found liable as a joint employer.

Finally, union lawyers are reporting that the NLRB’s new intake protocol, adopted at the end of 2025, has led to dismissals of unfair labor practice charges based on bureaucratic technicalities. Union attorneys have reported that their claims have been dismissed for “failure to cooperate”, for reasons such as not filling out questionnaires with information they had already submitted to the NLRB or for missing deadlines the Board did not communicate.