BY TOM LEONARD
HOUSTON - The president of Norway's Oil and Petrochemical Workers Union (NOPEF), Lars Myhre, visited locked out workers in front of the Crown Central refinery in Pasadena, Texas, September 15. Members of Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers (OCAW) Local 4-227 have been picketing the refinery since 252 members of the amalgamated local were locked out two and a half years ago.

Myhre was in Houston attending the Congress of the World Energy Council, an energy industry conference that includes various heads of state, energy ministers from oil producing countries, and executives from energy corporations around the globe.

"Crown is having trouble with its employees, the environment, and safety. I am here to see what kind of relationship Crown has with labor," Myrhe told the Pasadena Citizen, which covered the picket line event and interviewed the Norwegian unionist.

The bosses at Crown Central boasted in the Citizen last August 23 that they'd snagged a lucrative deal with Statoil of Norway, which is government owned. Statoil is also the leading producer in the North Sea. Driven by the fierce competition for markets, Statoil hopes this deal will help it break further into the U.S. market. NOPEF in Norway organizes 2,500 oil workers at Statoil.

Many of the Crown workers attending the picket line event explained their story to the NOPEF official and urged him to join their fight. At a later press conference, Myhre said that because of the lockout, he plans to put pressure on Statoil to stop selling 35,000 barrels of crude oil each day to Crown Central Petroleum's refinery in Pasadena.

Bruce Hicks, a Crown company official, contemptuously told the Chronicle that Statoil is completely satisfied with Crown's twisted version of the "facts," and that he hoped Myhre examined these "and not the fantasy that he has learned so far."

As part of its story on Lars Myhre and his visit to the picket line, the Citizen interviewed Hicks, who elaborated, "The lockout is solely an issue of sabotage. That was the issue that created the lockout. It will have an impact on reaching an agreement."

Dean Alexander, executive assistant to the president of the OCAW international union, who also accompanied the Norwegian union leader, reiterated that the company's false accusations against the workers at Crown are constantly dangled in front of the union. "Sabotage is a big issue with Crown. It's a sticking point in the negotiations." Alexander pointed out Crown is not seriously negotiating.

In fact, to back up the false charges of sabotage, last January the company filed a civil suit against Local 4-227 and 15 of its members charging them with conspiracy to commit sabotage. Fourteen of those charged are refinery workers: Brian Ambrose, David Arnold, Kenneth Bell, Michael Bonnin, Thomas Clark, Dean Cook, Douglas Cowart, Thaddeus Cruz, J.D. Denson, Richard Furlow, Dennis Gotcher, Richard Kimes, Jesse Ramirez Jr., and Hector Salenz. Also named in the suit was Joe Campbell, secretary-treasurer of the union local. Several of the defendants have taken new jobs and resigned from Crown since the suit was filed.

Two procedural hearings in the suit have been held so far before Federal Judge Lee Rosenthal of the 8th District Federal Court. Formal hearings and motions will take place through the fall of 1999 before the case is heard.

"Defending Workers Rights," a newsletter published by locked-out Crown workers, reported the following update of the court hearings in its September 14 issue. "On September 4 we went to Judge Rosenthal's courtroom at the Federal Courthouse for our second hearing in this suit. Our attorney told us that hearings like this are very unusual and the judge was holding them because she expects much animosity between the two sides."

The newsletter noted that Crown had demanded union attorney Patrick Flynn sign a confidentiality agreement before providing union lawyers with company records necessary to the defense such as time card records, videos, and photos. The company wanted to withhold such documents altogether, claiming they were "confidential and proprietary."

In a blow against Crown at the September 4 hearing, Rosenthal denied Crown's requests regarding these materials. This ruling "was a very small victory in a big war," the Crown workers newsletter stated.

During the lockout the union has been pursuing a corporate campaign at Crown's main office in Baltimore, Maryland, and protested at stockholder meetings held there. Locked-out workers have also traveled wherever Crown's products and service stations are located in other southern states, such as Virginia and North Carolina. With the help of other unions and civil rights organizations they recently took this campaign to Birmingham, Alabama.

The union's corporate campaign is also supporting an affirmative action suit against Crown's racist and sexist abuse of both union and nonunion employees prior to the lockout.

The suit was filed soon after the lockout in the Federal Court's Eastern District in Tyler, Texas, near Crown's other Texas facility.

Lea Sherman and Tony Dutrow contributed to this article.  
 
 
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