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In April 1977, the brewery workers union at Coors, representing 1,472 employees, went out on strike. The brewery kept operating with supervisors and 250 to 300 union members, including one member of the union executive board, who ignored the strike.
Soon after, Coors announced that it would hire replacements for the striking workers. About 700 workers quit the picket line to go back to work, and Coors replaced the remaining 500 workers, and kept making beer uninterrupted.
In December 1978, the workers at Coors voted by greater than 2:1 to decertify the union, ending 44 years of union representation at Coors. Because the strike was by then more than a year old, striking workers could not vote in the election.
Labor unions organized a boycott to punish Coors for its labor practices. One tactic was to push for state laws to ban sales of unpasteurized canned and bottled beer. Because Coors was the only major brewer not pasteurizing its canned and bottled beer, such laws would hurt only Coors.
Sales of Coors suffered during the 10-year labor union boycott, although Coors said the declining sales were also due to an industry-wide downturn in beer sales, and to 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.
The AFL-CIO ended its boycott of Coors in August 1987, after negotiations with Pete Coors, head of brewery operations. The details were not divulged, but were said to include an early union representation election in Colorado, and use of union workers to build the new Coors brewery in Virginia.
In 1988, the Teamsters Union, which represented brewery workers at the top three U.S. beer makers at that time (Anheuser-Busch, Miller, and Stroh), gained enough signatures to trigger a union representation election. Coors workers again rejected union representation by more than 2:1.
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This is the reason Coors stopped being a quality product back in the Carter administration. One more reason to detest the 70's.
And an incentive for “Smokey and the Bandit”
Interesting story.
And just think, when President Obama signs card check legislation this plant can once again become a union shop.
No surprise. I expect they’ll get after my company next.
I’ll have to convince my wife not to sign with them.
Quickest way to ruin any business.