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Workers from the JBS Beef Plant protest across the road from the plant on March 16 in Greeley, Colo. (Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette via AP)

DENVER — Thousands of��striking workers��at one of the nation's largest meatpacking plants will extend their walkout to a third week as they push for higher wages and better health care.

Industry experts said it’s too early to know if the strike that began March 16 at the Swift Beef Co. plant in Greeley, Colo., will impact beef prices for shoppers.

Owner JBS USA said March 27 that it's operating the plant at limited capacity and has shifted beef production elsewhere to meet its customers needs.

With negotiations stalled, the company remains in a strong position relative to the striking workers, said Jennifer Martin at Colorado State University’s animal sciences department.

That's because the industry is suddenly less burdened by excess slaughter capacity that had been keeping profit margins low. Now amid the Greeley strike and other slaughter plant capacity reductions — including the closure of a major��Tyson Foods’ plant��in Nebraska — JBS and other companies are seeing profits increase, Martin said.

“It’s not necessarily in favor of the employees,” she added. “The lack of harvest capacity at one facility right now might actually be a benefit to the larger industry in the sense of improving (profit) margins.”

🚨🚨🚨🚨 — UFCW Local 7 (@UFCW_7)

It’s the first strike at a U.S. slaughterhouse since workers walked out at a Hormel plant in Minnesota in 1985. That strike��lasted more than a year��and included violent confrontations between police and protesters.

JBS USA ranks No. 68 on the��Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest private carriers��in North America and No. 10 among��agriculture/food processing carriers.

The Greeley strike began March 16 with support from 99% of the plant’s 3,800 workers who belong to the United Food and Commercial Union Local 7 union. Thousands have showed up at the picket line over the past two weeks.

Union officials say the company’s offer of 2% wage hikes is less than inflation.

“The union stands ready to meet with JBS at any time, but make no mistake, workers will continue to fight until JBS rights these wrongs,” union President Kim Cordova said.

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The Greeley plant in 2021. (David Zalubowski/AP/File)

JBS is the world’s largest meatpacking company with a market capitalization of $17 billion. It's the top employer in Greeley, a city 50 miles northeast of Denver with a population of about 114,000 people.

“We are maintaining supply, supporting the long-term stability of the beef chain, and minimizing disruption for producers, customers and consumers,” JBS spokesperson Nikki Richardson said in an email. “Our priority is to keep product moving while we work toward a resolution in Greeley.”

JBS was��approved for trading��on the New York Stock Exchange last May, despite��environmental opposition��and a federal probe that led to its��guilty plea for bribing Brazilian officials��for the financing it used for its U.S. expansion.

Brown reported from Billings, Mont.