Coors Boycott
The boycott on the Coors Brewing Company began in 1966. There were three core issues that lead to the boycotts of the company which included the non-cooperation of unions, hiring practices that discriminated against minorities, and family members of the Coors Family supporting and funding right wing politics. These three issues lead people to boycott the beer for two decades.
Mexican-Americans were treated poorly in the company. Of the 1400 employees Coors Brewing Company had only 2% were of Mexican American descent. Also these employees were paid next to nothing and worked the worst jobs. Polygraph and other tests were put into effect following the kidnapping and murder of Adolph Coors III in 1960. These tests were used on potential employees and were considered very invasive and racist. Using these tests the brewing company could find people who would possibly cause issues for the company.
The Adolph Coors Brewing Company was boycotted by many different activist organizations around the state of Colorado to begin with. Activists such as GI Forum members, the United Mexican American Students (UMAS) chapter at the University of Colorado, and Chicano students at Southern Colorado State College now known as Colorado State University-Pueblo boycotted the beer in hopes of better treatment for minority groups.
Soon the boycott of Coors would spread to other western states in the country. The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) soon joined the cause to boycott Coors beer. Unions saw how unfair the Adolph Coors Brewing Company was treating its employees and demanded Coors to treat its workers better. Unions and many other activists would fight Coors for equality for many more years to come until the end of the boycott in 1987.
