NASHVILLE, TENN. -- PACE INTERNATIONAL UNION (Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers) today welcomed the public disclosure of the first serious effort to take control of beleaguered Crown Central Petroleum, since the company announced it was for sale back in February of this year.

P.A. Novelly, CEO of Apex Oil Company, disclosed today that he has made an offer to merge his privately held company with Crown. Apex is offering to restructure Crown's debt and take over management of the company in exchange for 35 percent of Crown's outstanding common stock.

Novelly, in a letter to the Crown Board of Directors which was disclosed as part of a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, cited a major condition of the transaction as being "satisfactory resolution of the boycott against Crown and its subsidiaries by the Paper, Allied-Industrial, and Chemical Workers Union."

"This offer clearly recognizes that union and civil rights problems which prompted the expanding boycott must be resolved if the company has any future," said Joe Drexler, PACE Director of Special Projects.

"A change in Crown management and ownership and settling labor and civil rights problems represent the only way to restore Crown to profitability and ensure a fair return to shareholders," he added.

Crown locked out 252 PACE members from its main refinery in Pasadena, Texas in February 1996. In November 1997, the union began a boycott in earnest against the company. Per station gasoline sales at Crown stations and Zippy Mart and Fast Fare convenience stores have dropped for five successive quarters in comparison to the previous years' quarterly sales. Overall national gasoline consumption increased during this period.

The campaign against Crown has been endorsed by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition; National Baptist Convention USA, Inc., the nation's largest African-American church with over 8 million members; AFL-CIO; National Black Caucus of State Legislators; NAACP; and numerous other church, community, religious and community groups.

PACE has 320,000 members nationwide, and represents the bulk of workers at U.S. oil refineries.

PR Newswire, November 10, 1999