Crown Workers Arrested Protesting Crown's Pollution

FOUR PEOPLE INCLUDING TWO locked-out Crown workers were arrested April 19th outside the mansion of Texas Governor and Republican presidential hopeful George Bush. The four were peacefully protesting legislation authored by Bush which would allow older industrial plants like Crown's refinery to obtain air pollution permits by complying with 1972 Clean Air Act emission standards.

According to Bush's legislation, participation in the program would be "voluntary," a codeword for letting polluters like Crown off the hook.

Those arrested included locked-out Crown workers Karen Sloan and Michael Covington. "These members put it on the line to expose Crown and other polluters; said Local 4-227 Financial Secretary Joe Campbell. "It's just not fair that Crown doesn't have to comply with environmental laws yet other companies do," he added.

Richard Baker of the Green Party and Rick Abraham, Director of Texans United, who has been instrumental in calling attention to Crown's violations of pollution laws, were also arrested.

Commenting on Bush's true political intentions, Tom Smith, Director of Public Citizen of Texas, a Ralph Nader affiliated group said, "For years people have protested in front of the mansion, and nobody's been arrested until he started running for President."

An environmental group, Public Research Works issued a study recently claiming that Bush is giving preferential treatment to industrial polluters that have contributed over $10 million to the state's politicians since 1993, including $560,000 to Bush.

Crown Boycott News, July-August-September 1999