DENVER — A Colorado judge denied a motion from nearly a dozen major US meat processors to dismiss a class action lawsuit regarding suppressed worker wages on Sept. 27.

The lawsuit filed by meat processing workers against their employers alleges the processors violated the Sherman Act by conspiring to “fix, depress, maintain and stabilize the compensation paid to workers, both hourly and salaried.”

Plaintiffs Ron Brown, Minka Garmon and Jessie Croft seek relief for themselves and anyone else employed between Jan. 1, 2014, and the present day by the following processors: JBS USA, Tyson Foods Inc., Cargill, Hormel Foods Corp., American Foods Group LLC, Triumph Foods LLC, Seaboard Foods LLC, National Beef Packing Co. LLC, Smithfield Foods Inc., Agri Beef Co. and Perdue Farms Inc.

“As a result of the conspiracy to depress wages, Processor Defendants simultaneously and in parallel limited annual wage increases to members of the Class. Wages were lower than they would have been in the absence of a conspiracy,” the lawsuit said.

Chief Judge Philip Brimmer of the District Court of Colorado denied the processors’ joint motion to dismiss the case, saying that the “plaintiffs sufficiently allege defendants engaged in parallel conduct by providing specific factual examples of wage depression that support their claim of broader wage depression.”

The Department of Justice also recently filed a suit regarding a meat market conspiracy. The lawsuit targets Agri Stats, a data company that allegedly distributed competitively sensitive information such as worker wages, other costs, prices and output.