Crown Central, PACE union reach tentative lockout deal

HOUSTON, JAN 4 - OIL AND GAS company Crown Central Petroleum Corp. on Thursday announced it had reached a deal with locked-out workers at its 100,000 barrel-per-day refinery near Houston.

About 250 workers have been locked out of Crown's Pasadena, Texas, refinery for nearly five years in a dispute over wages and working conditions.

It is the second tentative settlement agreement between Baltimore-based Crown and local members of The Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical, and Energy Workers International Union (PACE). Union members rejected a proposed settlement in October.

PACE members are expected to finish voting on the deal in about 10 days, one of the union's chief negotiators said.

"I'm not going to characterize the mood right now," PACE executive vice president Bob Wages said.

Crown operates two Texas refineries with a total capacity of 152,000 bpd, 329 retail gas outlets and 13 pipeline depots.