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= Adolph Coors Beer Company Boycott =

The Coors Beer Company Boycott was focused on controversial issues surrounding the Coors Brewing Company. These included accusations of discrimination that included the hiring of Hispanics, African Americans, women, and gay people. There was also controversy concerning Coor's support of conservative companies.

Beginnings
The Chicano and Black Activists first began boycotting Coors from 1957 to 1973 in hopes to change the accused discriminatory hiring and employment practices and policies within the Coors company.

On March 11, 1957, the union Local 366 filed unfair labor practices charges against Coors. On April 24th, the union went on strike after a month of failed negotiations. Local 366 encouraged men and women to boycott Coors beer to support the strike. Coors ignored their requests and refused to settle with Local 366 and in turn hired strikebreakers to keep up with production. On August 20th the strike abruptly ended with what was deemed to be “a compromising agreement which neither side claimed as a victory.” 172 strikers returned to work and 120 received 3 months severance pay that Coors agreed to give to those unwilling or unable to return to work. Even after the strike ended the boycott against buying Coors beer prevailed. The strike had lasted 117 days.

Teamster and Gay Boycott
After the kidnaping of Adolph Coors III in 1960, the Coors beer company began implementing new security measures of screening employee character and loyalty in an attempt to protect the company. This included mandatory psychological screenings, physical examinations and polygraph tests of all current and new employees. The company claimed the polygraph was to provide safety to current employees and eliminate unsatisfactory hires. The test contained questions about criminal activity, sexuality and sex, and political preferences. This was viewed as an invasion of privacy and caused accusations of Coors being anti-gay in its hiring practices and anti-union.

The Teamsters assembled their boycott against Coors in 1973 to fight for labor rights and to denounce the Coors family’s accused political agenda. The Teamsters quickly gained support from the LGBT community, union members, Black Activists, Latinos, feminists and student activists. By 1975 the boycott had spread beyond Colorado and California and had transformed into a political and symbolic movement against Coors’ conservative views.

Conclusion
On August 19, 1987, AFL-CIO and Coors came to an undisclosed settlement that ended the 10 year boycott.