Coors Boycott: The Influence of the Chicano Movement

Impact and Legacy


The Coors Boycott  ended with less of a bang and more of a fizzle. It officially ended when the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations and the Coors company came to an agreement in 1987 as Coors was losing too much money in key states like California and Colorado. Coors agreed to give the workers a right to unionize and the whole issue seemed to fade away. As the strike came to an end and time went on however, it seemed that many of strikers demands had gone unmet. However, they continued to fight for their rights to unionize and gain substantial freedoms in the workforce and the boycott refused to end.

Coors eventually had to find a way to stabilize the union and work with the remaining strikers in order to gain popularity once more. Coors ended up being taken to court due to their discriminatory hiring and firing practices. This ended up with Coors losing and needing to take away their polygraph exams. This also ended up in the boycott earning a lot of publicity and at the same time forcing Coors to have to work to improve their reputation. Coors did this by paying many Chicano organizations and labor unions reparations and they still continue to fund these types of organizations today. However all is not perfect as there are still conservative and prejudicial practices held by Coors breweries all over the world today and many people still choose to actively boycott them.

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