FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 14, 2000

Contact: S. Booker 
         (202) 526-4904 

BALTIMORE, MD-The Baltimore-based Crown Central Petroleum Company has been hit with another class action lawsuit accusing company executives of breaching their fiduciary duties to shareholders. The suit is intended to stop Crown Chairman Henry A. Rosenberg Jr. from buying out other shareholders while the company's stock is at near record lows. Crown, which traded at $36 a share a decade ago, is down to $7.75 currently.

Crown is the target of a national boycott after locking out workers at its Pasadena, Texas, refinery four years ago. The company is also a defendant in a class action discrimination lawsuit and has had to fight off lawsuits by environmental groups in Texas. Crown received the largest air-pollution fine in Texas history last year.

The list of national organizations lined up against Crown continues to grow. Rev. Jesse Jackson and the RAINBOW/PUSH Coalition have joined the AFL-CIO, NAACP, Sierra Club, NOW, Black Trade Unionists, National Black State Legislators, and scores of other groups, in condemning Crown's policies toward workers and the environment.

(See: AP-3/8; Reuters-3/7-10; Bloomberg-3/7-10;
Washington Post-3/8;  Baltimore Sun-3/8; Oil Daily-3/8)