In this fast-paced and lively narrative, Allyson Brantley offers the definitive story of a labor movement that opposed the Coors family’s conservative values from the 1950s to the Reagan Era. The book is the first to take a deep dive into how a broad coalition of leftist interests extended boycotts and strikes to win over public hearts and minds and thus challenge unfair and discriminatory business practices of the Golden, Colorado company. While Brantley argues that the labor movement ultimately failed because broad alliances weakened specific bargaining demands, she concludes that the length and public attention of these efforts inspired recent activism, including those directed at the rightwing politics of Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-A.
The initial Coors boycott began in 1957, when employees organized for better pay under United Brewery Workers Union 366. At the time, they had been making half the wages of similar workers in other American breweries....
University of California Press