[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 7 (Wednesday, February 2, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H192]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1345
       MARKING 4TH ANNIVERSARY OF CROWN CENTRAL PETROLEUM LOCKOUT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaTourette). Under a previous order of 
the House, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I share the concern of my colleague 
from North Carolina on our military pay. Hopefully we made a down 
payment last year and will continue it this year.
  My concern, Mr. Speaker and Members, and what I want to talk about 
today is, we are marking the 4th anniversary for one of the longest 
lockouts in U.S. history that is in my district. On February 5, 1996, 
the management of Crown Central Petroleum ordered the union workers to 
leave its refinery in Pasadena, Texas, and lock the gates behind them. 
By the next day, the company had replaced all 252 union members with 
lower cost and inexperienced temporary workers.
  What caused the lockout? The only possible reason is Crown Petroleum 
wanted to break the union. During the contract negotiations, the union 
stated they had no intentions of striking. In fact, Crown Petroleum's 
reaction was to order an immediate lockout. Before negotiators for the 
employees had a chance to react, they were escorted out of the 
refinery. Crown tried to justify the lockout by saying that they had 
committed actions of sabotage, and yet Crown later invited these same 
employees to return to work provided they agreed to the company's 
demands.
  The concern I have, Mr. Speaker, is if someone did sabotage the 
plant, they need to be prosecuted under the laws, but management should 
not use it as a reason for not allowing these people to come back to 
work who had been there many years.
  If they agreed to the company demands, it would have been an 
elimination of over 40 percent of the work force. These highly 
sensitive jobs, that are now performed by temporary and less skilled 
workers, were issues at the negotiating table that were very 
contentious.
  The company was trying to rewrite the entire union contract and 
eliminate a third of the employees and eliminate the worker protections 
for older employees. The employees were willing to negotiate, but Crown 
not only wanted to have their demands met, they opted for a lockout. 
Four years, Mr. Speaker, is one of the longest lockouts in history.
  Four years later, friends and neighbors, my constituents, are still 
not working. Their lives have been radically changed for standing up 
and insisting on safe and fair working conditions. Employees like 
Marshall Norman, a 16 year employee, had his medical insurance canceled 
while his wife was pregnant and his daughter was diagnosed with 
leukemia.
  Another constituent, John Grant, served his country in Vietnam and as 
a Marine guard in the White House. He has only worked sporadically 
since the lockout. Hardy Smith, a 25 year employee, lost his credit and 
went from making $18 an hour to $6.50 an hour. Henry Godbolt, a 24-year 
employee, is struggling to make ends meet for his family, including 
paying for his daughter's education. He is working odd jobs like mowing 
lawns and washing windows.
  These are good and honest hard working Americans who are being forced 
to struggle because their employer locked them out. We need to have an 
end to this madness.
  For the last year, Mr. Speaker, I have tried to work and offer 
whatever assistance my office could to sit down and work it out between 
the plant owners and the employees, and we have not had any luck. 
Despite many years of hardships and fighting back to reclaim their 
lives, the Paper, Allied-Industrial and Chemical Energy Workers Union, 
PACE, which used to be the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers Union, is 
the union that represents these locked out workers, along with the AFL-
CIO, and they have been boycotting the Crown gasoline stations and 
convenience stores.
  The locked out workers have traveled to Maryland, Virginia, North 
Carolina and South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama to promote this 
boycott and have urged union members as well as other concerned 
citizens to support them. The boycott, or the ``Don't Buy Crown 
Gasoline'' campaign is endorsed by groups ranging from the Rainbow/ 
Push Coalition to the Environmental Defense Fund to the Labor Union 
Women. This is only a small sample of a long list of groups who have 
supported this boycott.
  With the employees' hard work and persistence, along with the support 
of many groups and individuals, the boycott has been successful in 
decreasing the sales of Crown gasoline and its products. The boycott 
may become our only hope to bring reason back to this issue. I would 
hope that the management and the owners of Crown would realize that not 
only my constituents but their former employees want to work and want 
to do a good job and make that a producing plant. Let us end this 
nightmare.
  Mr. Speaker, this Saturday, February 5, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., many 
of these hard working employees will mark the 4th anniversary of the 
lockout at the PACE local union at 704 Pasadena Freeway.
  Mr. Speaker, I was home last week and met with a few of the members, 
and, believe me, I bought this T-shirt because they could not afford to 
give it to us, but it talks about trying to end the lockout at Crown 
Petroleum. I would hope that through this special order today that we 
could encourage not only the employees but also the management to sit 
down and get these people back to work.

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