Editing Coors Brewing Company (section)

== Controversies ==
{{Main|Coors strike and boycott}}

=== Labor problems ===
In April 1977, the brewery workers union at Coors, representing 1,472 employees, went on strike. The brewery kept operating with supervisors and 250 to 300 union members, including one union executive board member who ignored the strike. Soon after, Coors announced that it would hire replacements for the striking workers.<ref>{{cite web |title=Adolph Coors Company (A) |work=Business Case, [[Tuck School of Business]], [[Dartmouth College]] |url=http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pdf/2001-1-0027.pdf |access-date=April 24, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060527021956/http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pdf/2001-1-0027.pdf |archive-date=May 27, 2006 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> About 700 workers quit the picket line to go back to work, and Coors replaced the remaining 500 workers, keeping the beer production process uninterrupted.<ref>Dana Parsons, "Why did strikers return?", "The Denver Post", October 3, 1979, p. 3.</ref> In December 1978, the workers at Coors voted by greater than a two-to-one ratio to decertify the union, ending 44 years of union representation at Coors. Because the strike was more than a year old, striking workers could not vote in the election.<ref>Karen Newman, "Coors workers reject union by big margin", ''[[Rocky Mountain News]]'' (Denver), December 15, 1978, p. 1.</ref>

Labor unions organized a boycott to punish Coors for its labor practices.<ref>[[Molly Ivins]], [https://www.nytimes.com/1979/05/28/archives/union-at-coors-may-be-broken-but-it-hasnt-halted-its-boycott-end-of.html?login=email "Union at Coors May Be Broken But It Hasn't Halted Its Boycott"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160806152838/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?login=email&res=9C05EFDF1539E732A2575BC2A9639C946890D6CF |date=August 6, 2016}}, "[[The New York Times]]", May 28, 1979, p. A7</ref> One tactic employed by the unions was a push for states to pass laws banning the sale of unpasteurized canned and bottled beer.<ref>"Coors union backing Calif. beer roadblock", ''The Denver Post'', December 5, 1977.</ref> Because Coors was the only major brewer at the time not pasteurizing its canned and bottled beer, such laws would hurt only Coors.<ref> "Bill before Missouri legislature would ban Coors", "The Denver Post" November 2, 1984.</ref> Sales of Coors suffered during the decade-long labor union boycott. However, Coors claimed that declining sales were also due to an industry-wide downturn in beer sales and increased competition. To maintain production, Coors expanded its sales area from the 18 western states to which it had marketed for years to nationwide distribution.<ref>Bartell Nyberg, "Coors brewing for long-term survival", ''[[The Denver Post]]'', February 22, 1987, p. 1G.</ref> This was completed in 1991, with Indiana being the last state for the brand to appear.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON-C2qqmCrU&channel=ronaldtheriot Louisiana Beer Reviews: Coors Banquet Beer Revisited (bottled version)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160104214619/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON-C2qqmCrU&channel=ronaldtheriot |date=January 4, 2016}}</ref>

The [[AFL–CIO]] ended its boycott of Coors in August 1987, after negotiations with [[Pete Coors]], head of brewery operations. The settlement details were not divulged but were said to include an early union representation election in Colorado and the use of union workers to build the new Coors brewery in Virginia.<ref>"AFL-CIO ends 10-year Coors boycott", ''The Denver Post'', August 19, 1987.</ref>

In 1988, the [[Teamsters Union]], which represented brewery workers at the top three U.S. beer makers at the time ([[Anheuser-Busch]], [[Miller Brewing Company|Miller]], and [[Stroh Brewery Company|Stroh]]), gained enough signatures to trigger a union representation election inside the Coors company. Coors workers again rejected union representation by more than a two-to-one ratio.<ref>Jeffrey Leib, "Coors workers reject union", ''[[The Denver Post]]'', December 16, 1988, p. 1A.</ref>

=== Minority issues ===
Mexican Americans charged Coors with discriminatory hiring practices following the passage of the Civil Rights Act. They launched a boycott of the company's products beginning in the late 1960s. Labor unions and gay rights activists joined the boycott, which lasted into the 1980s.<ref>{{Cite book |title = Freedom is Not Enough: The Opening of the American Workplace |last = MacLean |first = Nancy |publisher = Harvard University Press |year = 2006 |pages = 177–179 }}</ref>

A federal lawsuit in 1975 by the [[Equal Employment Opportunity Commission]]<ref name=coklaid>{{cite news |url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qEdNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4foDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6072%2C7406975 |newspaper = Lakeland Ledger |location = Florida |title = Is it beer or 'Colorado Kool-Aid'? |last = Lichtenstein |first = Grace |agency = (New York Times) |date = December 28, 1975 |page = 7D }}</ref> ended in a settlement with Coors agreeing not to discriminate against blacks, Hispanics, and women.<ref>{{cite web |title = Adolph Coors Company (A) |work = Business Case, [[Tuck School of Business]], [[Dartmouth College]] |url = http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pdf/2001-1-0027.pdf |access-date = April 24, 2006 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060527021956/http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pdf/2001-1-0027.pdf |archive-date = May 27, 2006 |df = mdy-all }}</ref> In 1977, Coors was accused of firing gay and lesbian employees.<ref>{{cite journal |title = The Dynamics of Brand Legitimacy: An Interpretive Study in the Gay Men's Community ([[PDF]]) |journal = Journal of Consumer Research, University of Chicago Press |jstor = 10 |volume = 16 |pages = 670–675 }}</ref> From the late 1970s, Coors agreed not to discriminate against homosexuals; the first major brewery in the United States to make such a commitment.<ref name="Baum2001">{{cite book|author=Dan Baum|title=Citizen Coors: A Grand Family Saga of Business, Politics, and Beer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lZRBQ24lXZ8C|date=10 April 2001|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-0-06-095946-3|page=205}}</ref>

Coors encouraged the organization of its gay and lesbian employees into the Lesbian and Gay Employee Resource (LAGER) in 1993.<ref>Justin Berton, "The other Coors spokesman", [[Westword]] (Denver) September 2, 1999, p. 28.</ref> In May 1995, Coors became the 21st publicly traded corporation in the United States to extend employee benefits to same-sex partners.<ref>Michael Booth, "Coors adds 'partners' to benefits", ''[[The Denver Post]]'', July 8, 1995, p. 1A.</ref> When company chairman [[Pete Coors]] was criticized for the company's gay-friendly policy during his 2004 Republican primary campaign for a United States Senate seat from Colorado, he defended the policy as a basic good business practice.<ref>John C. Green, Mark J. Rozell, Clyde Wilcox, [https://books.google.com/books?id=3YhlzY3eQIgC&dq=coors+gay+%22good+business%22&pg=PA189 "The Values Campaign?"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160502123253/https://books.google.com/books?id=3YhlzY3eQIgC&pg=PA189&lpg=PA189&dq=coors+gay+%22good+business%22&source=bl&ots=7UL9Rc0pqT&sig=Se8kKJjMdJJ0zGiKGjc_IDpMfVE&hl=en&ei=G-M7S8PZLKimtgeBp-GNCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBUQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=coors%20gay%20%22good%20business%22&f=false |date=May 2, 2016 }} Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, p. 185.</ref>