Articles by Comrades 

Social Murder in Greeley

_{How Profit Costs Lives}

Sal

Jul 10, 2026

 

In the 1800s, a writer named Friedrich Engels described a hidden form of killing he called “social murder.” He explained that when society creates dangerous working and living conditions, and those in power know the results but do nothing to stop them, it leads to early and unnecessary deaths. This is not a single violent act by one person. It is a system that wears people down until they get sick or die young, all in the name of making money. Today, this kind of systemic harm is clearly visible in Greeley, Colorado.

 

Peggy Sue Squires knows the pain too well. The longtime Greeley resident has watched fentanyl tear through her community. Six people in her neighborhood died from fentanyl overdoses in a two-week period. “It makes me sick.” Squires says. “We really need to look into our community and take it to heart. Do something big about it. The homeless situation has only gotten worse now.”

 

Greeley sits in Weld County, a center for large-scale meatpacking and oil and gas production. The JBS Beef plant is one of the biggest in the United States. It employs thousands of workers, many of them immigrants from Mexico, Haiti, Somalia, Burma, and other countries. These workers process beef that ends up on tables across the country. Yet the conditions inside the plant often put their health and lives at risk.

 

Line speeds in meatpacking plants are extremely fast. Workers use sharp knives on heavy fast-moving carcasses for hours, leading to repetitive injuries, cuts, strains, and long-term damage to muscles and joints and even death. Many report feeling exhausted and in constant pain.

 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Greeley JBS plant became one of the hardest-hit workplaces in the county. At least six workers died from the virus, including Tin Aye, a 60-year-old immigrant from Myanmar, Saul Sanchez (78), Eduardo Conchas de la Cruz (60), and Tibursio Rivera López (69). The company pushed to keep production running, at the expense of safety measures. In 2021, another worker, 55-year-old Jonathan Bryan Duerst, died after falling into a vat of chemicals used to process animal hides.

 

In March 2026, nearly 3,800 workers at the plant went on strike. It was the first major meatpacking strike in the U.S. in about 40 years. They demanded higher wages that keep up with living costs, better health care, safer line speeds, and fair policies on protective equipment. After three weeks, the strike ended with some agreements to resume talks, but the core problems of dangerous work remain.

 

The dangers do not stop at the plant gates. Weld County is one of the most heavily drilled areas in Colorado. Oil and gas operations, including hydraulic fracturing (fracking), release chemicals into the air and affect water. Residents near these sites report higher rates of breathing problems, headaches, dizziness, and other illnesses. Studies have linked living close to wells with increased risks of birth defects and certain childhood cancers. Working-class neighborhoods, often home to the same families who work at the packing plant, suffer the most from this pollution.

 

Economic pressure makes everything harder. Greeley’s poverty rate is around 15 percent, with a median household income of roughly $70,000, far below what many families need to live comfortably in Colorado. Many workers cannot easily afford quality health care, nutritious food, or safe housing. Constant financial stress, combined with physically demanding jobs and environmental hazards, shortens lives and damages health over time.

 

These economic and physical pressures also fuel the deadly fentanyl crisis, turning personal tragedies into examples of social murder. Low wages, constant pain from job injuries, lack of affordable health care, and nonstop stress push some workers to seek relief through painkillers. When prescriptions become too expensive or hard to get, many turn to street drugs. Fentanyl is a cheap but extremely powerful synthetic opioid and is often mixed into other substances without users knowing. One small dose can kill.

 

Society knows these conditions create despair, pain, and addiction, yet those in power continue to allow them. Companies prioritize faster production and higher profits instead of safer jobs and better pay. The system fails to provide good health care or mental health support for working people. The deaths look like individual choices or bad luck, but they are the predictable result of a system that values corporate earnings more than workers’ lives. Society creates the conditions, knows the deadly outcome, and lets it continue.

 

This pattern is not accidental or the result of a few bad managers. Companies choose to maximize production and profits. They resist stronger safety rules and environmental protections when those rules cut into earnings. Government agencies often side with industry interests, allowing conditions to continue even when the human costs are well known. The result is a form of violence that hides behind normal business operations.

 

Workers in Greeley have pushed back though. The recent strike showed the power of solidarity among immigrant communities and union members. Continued organizing through unions, community groups, and broader alliances can win better protections, such as slower line speeds, cleaner air standards, and real access to health care.

 

Yet lasting change requires more than small improvements. As long as the economy prioritizes private profit over human needs, companies will keep finding ways to shift risks onto workers and communities. The people who process the nation’s meat and help extract its energy deserve to return home safe each day, raise healthy families, and live full lives. Real justice means putting workers’ well-being and community health ahead of distant shareholder gains.

 

Greeley’s story is a clear example of how modern industry can quietly take years off people’s lives. Recognizing this reality is the first step toward demanding a system that values human life more than corporate balance sheets.

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