A Colorado woman has filed a federal lawsuit against JBS USA, the world’s largest meatpacking company and a major donor to Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration, alleging she was pressured to falsify safety records and subjected to anti-Arab discrimination at its Greeley beef processing plant.
Salima Jandali, 31, a Moroccan immigrant and Muslim, claims her supervisor regularly called her a “stupid Arab” and forced her and others to work without proper protective equipment. When she complained about dangerous conditions, her locker was vandalized, her Islamic prayer beads were thrown in the trash, and she was forced out of her job, according to the lawsuit filed June 11 in Colorado federal court.
Jandali, who conducted mandatory safety training at the plant, said workers frequently lost fingers and limbs due to inadequate training. She recounted a Burmese immigrant whose arm was amputated by a processing-floor machine, and noted that accidental stabbings with hooks and knives were commonplace. The company was often short-staffed and cut corners on safety protocols, she said, with many new hires not speaking English and lacking translation services.
In 2021, JBS was fined by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration after a worker at the Greeley plant had his left arm severed by a conveyor belt. That same year, another worker died after falling into a vat of chemicals. In 2023, a Wisconsin employee lost two fingers, and in May, a worker in Arizona died from blunt-force injuries. On Monday, 20 workers at a JBS plant in Texas were hospitalised after exposure to toxic gases.
JBS has faced previous allegations of abuse, including a $5.5 million settlement in 2017 over discrimination against Muslim workers at the same Greeley plant. The company’s parent was also fined $3.2 billion by the Brazilian government in a bribery case. JBS did not respond to requests for comment.
