FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Contact: Joe Drexler
         PACE Special Projects Director 
         (615) 834-8590

NASHVILLE, TN. - FEB. 14, 2000 -- The Paper Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE) today received information that the FBI has closed its investigation into Crown Central Petroleum's allegations that union members had engaged in sabotage. Crown Central Petroleum had apparently been informed by the FBI in November of 1999 that the FBI had dropped its investigation.

Crown locked out its union employees on February 5, 1996, after it claimed workers were engaging in acts of sabotage and asked the FBI to investigate. Crown also offered a monetary reward for information leading to a conviction.

PACE vehemently denied that its members ever attempted to sabotage the plant and claimed that Crown contrived the charges to justify its brutal lockout.

"There has never been any evidence of the company's phony charges, and the news that the FBI closed its investigation clearly supports our contention," said Joe Campbell, Financial Secretary of PACE Local 4-227.

"The Company never informed us that the FBI investigation was dropped, despite the fact that negotiations to end the labor dispute have been ongoing for several months," said Campbell. "Obviously, the company wanted to hide this fact from us and the public," he commented.

Crown filed a civil lawsuit against PACE and its members, two years after the lockout took place. PACE charges that the sole purpose of the lawsuit was to keep the false charges alive.

"Crown simply had no reason to engage in the lockout, other than to break the union, and the sabotage charges were meant to be their cover," said Joe Drexler, PACE Director of Special Projects.

"What is remarkable is that Crown is spending millions of dollars of shareholders' money to litigate a civil case in which evidence is absent," said Drexler. "This, however, isn't any surprise since shareholders' interests have never been served by Henry Rosenberg and his rubber-stamp board," he added.

The lockout against 252 PACE members began on February 5, 1996, after Union negotiators informed Crown management that it had no intention of striking at the company's Pasadena, Texas refinery. A few days after the lockout, Crown invited the same workers, it accused of sabotage, to return to work provided that PACE would agree to all of Crown's contract demands. Several months after the lockout, the National Labor Relations Board declared, "no finding has been made that any bargaining unit employees in fact engaged in such sabotage activities."

"Our members have had their reputations questioned because of these charges, and the dropping of the FBI Investigation exonerates them," said Campbell. He added, "We are also confident that Crown's phony civil lawsuit will go nowhere due to lack of evidence."

PACE, based in Nashville, Tenn., represents 320,000 workers in the paper, chemical, energy and automotive supply industries. Additional information on the Crown lockout may be obtained at www.crownboycott.org.