Where's The Beef?
Or Corned Beef....
March 20th, 2026
In The News:
I enjoy a good steak every now and again...okay probably more than that but if you haven’t noticed, the price of beef (among many items) continues to go higher. Well, some bad news. It’s going to get worse. No, not just because of the “conflict” with Iran. One of the largest beef processing plants here (Colorado) just went on strike. JBS, whose headquarters are in Brazil and who also happens to be the largest beef producer in the U.S., accounts for roughly 5% of all the beef processed here at home. This is one of the largest strikes in this industry in decades and once you factor in that we just had the smallest cattle herd in the past 75 years, well...you can see where this is going.
Personally, I have always felt that front line workers deserved to be paid a fair, living wage with a solid benefit package because, frankly, it is difficult to operate successful businesses where the products being created require manual labor without good employees. Happy, employees tend to be hard working, dedicated employees. And hard working, dedicated employees help companies be successful and profitable. In this case though, it appears the workers were being paid fairly and had a long-term contract they could have chosen to utilize but instead decided because they live in Colorado their living costs are higher (are they?) than what the long-term contract which was negotiated by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union offered. Fine. One other thing, JBS lost $64 million in 2024. In 2025 through the first nine months, they reported a $566 million loss. That’s a problem and usually results in companies either bargaining for concessions or filing for bankruptcy...or both. So... this strike appears to be ill-timed and ill advised. Companies such as Tyson Foods closed a plant in Nebraska in January laying off more than 3,000 workers. They also reduced capacity/production at a plant in Texas. Striking for fair wages when companies are highly profitable can be seen as logical if not a bit controversial (Don’t kill the Golden Goose) but when the company is hemorrhaging money? There is an old saying: Pigs get fat. Hogs get slaughtered. In this case...well, you can figure it out.
What I am Following:
The “Conflict.” The price of oil. Gas prices. Airfares which are now headed upward just as we approach peak travel season. You know, the usual suspects. Oh, and AI stealing jobs, auto makers big EV bets that appear to have lost and here’s one...home sales rose 1.8% in February. February...that was a long time ago if you know what I mean.
Some good news for sports fans. The WNBA reached a tentative agreement. The story is below.
Bad news...mortgage rates are back on the rise and CBS had a brief labor walkout this week. TSA lines are getting longer with no relief in sight.
Something To Make You Think:
It takes 570 gallons of paint to paint the white house. I’d hate to think what that number would be if it were gold....
Tip of The Week:
Wake up early. Waking up early is as close to a life cheat code as you will find. It requires you to be disciplined, and it creates self-awareness of your control over your own world. And things (the house, the world itself) are quiet. It’s peaceful.
Early in my career at PepsiCo, I made it a point to get to the office no later than 7AM. I did this for two reasons; we had a lot of front-line employees and managers who started their days early so I thought they might as well see me doing the same. Second, this was the most productive time of the day for me, most people don’t come into work early to chat, but they often stay late to do so...to allow traffic to clear.
Rant of the week! A.K.A. This weeks’ “Otto” moment:
March Madness when your team is a 5 seed and underestimates their 12 seed opponent because no one has ever heard of them. Except if you look at the stat line, they score 90 points a game...in college. Congratulations High Point. Or is it Highpoint? Whatever. Badgers? You. Are. (Temporarily). Dead. To. Me.
Friday Fun:
Tuesday was St. Patrick’s Day and if you were conned into buying multiple pounds of corned beef before realizing that the only thing worse than the disappointing taste might be the day after impact, you have my sympathies. If you disagree or you are stubborn and still have some left...here is a reuben recipe.
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/47717/reuben-sandwich-ii/
Thanks for visiting.
JC
Labor Pain is published by Jay Conlin, Founder of Conlin Consulting. If you have labor and/or employee relations questions, issues or concerns, please reach out to me at Jay@Conlinconsultingllc.com for a free consult.
Unless I specifically indicate, I am not compensated for any endorsements I might provide in Labor Pain.
