In February 1996, Crown locked out 252 skilled PACE members from its Pasadena refinery, and replaced them with less-skilled contract employees. Since then, Crown's pollution problems - which are mainly felt in the low income, fence-line communities that surround the refinery - have intensified. In November 1997, PACE and Texans United released their first report, Dirty Business: A Response to Crown Central Petroleum's Campaign of Misinformation, which documented an almost three-fold rise in the refinery's pollution after the lockout. The new report contains precise data and page after page of "incidents" and measures of toxic releases from Crown's Pasadena refinery since the lockout began. It observes that organized workers with a union contract are a community's "first line of defense" against dangerous accidents and pollution. "Companies with overworked, under-skilled and poorly trained workers who are afraid to speak out are accidents waiting to happen," states the report.

Crown has pulled out all stops to prevent environmental enforcement. Despite receiving the largest air pollution fine in Texas history in August 1998, the company so far has escaped fines totaling millions of additional dollars, and has not been required to install needed pollution abatement equipment. It had a Federal Clean Air Act lawsuit tossed out of court, only to watch Texans United and other environmental groups work steadfastly to have it reinstated with help from the U.S. Department of Justice, which filed a brief urging the court to reverse its earlier decision. Two other environmental lawsuits targeting Crown are proceeding through the courts.

Texas Congressmen Gene Green and Ken Bentsen added their voice to the protest against Crown's pollution in a letter to the local EPA administrator: "For more than ten years, Crown Central Petroleum has threatened the health of our constituents by its failure to adequately address their problems of excess sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide emissions. Other refineries in the Pasadena area must comply with federal emission standards. It is fundamentally unfair to allow Crown Central Petroleum to have a competitive advantage over these facilities, while they endanger the community."

Crown was one of the first companies to step forward and support a "voluntary" compliance program established by Governor Bush, made possible through a legal loophole, to let some of the state's worst polluters off the hook through a "grandfathering" provision. The loophole allowed Crown's Pasadena refinery to escape air pollution permits, reviews of impacts on public health and best pollution controls.

This new report cites Crown CEO Henry Rosenberg, his wife and son, together with other beneficiaries of Bush's grandfathering program, as heavy contributors to the governor's campaign war chest in Texas. According to a study by the Los Angeles Times, Bush received $1.5 million from 55 grandfathered companies in his two campaigns for governor. When Bush began raising funds for his presidential run, grandfathered polluters stepped up to the plate, and contributed more than $316,000 in the first 28 days of fundraising.

"Our environment and our communities should not be sacrificed to meet the demand of rich political contributors," said PACE Region VI Vice President Jim Byrd at a news conference to oppose continuation of the voluntary program. "We know that operating oil refineries and other plants cleanly and safely is our best assurance that we can keep both our jobs and our lives." Carefully portrayed in the report is how PACE Local 4-227 and Texans United forged an alliance to make Crown accountable for its pollution. Both organizations successfully lobbied a Texas state agency to increase its proposed fines by 50 percent.

PACE Local 4-227 members Mike Covington and Karen Sloan were arrested, along with Texans United members, on a public sidewalk in front of the governor's mansion for speaking out against Crown's deadly pollution. They were strip-searched and crammed into crowded jails for 12 to 24 hours. Attorneys characterized the arrests as illegal violations of free speech that took place only because presidential hopeful Bush did not want protest demonstrations at the mansion during his campaign.

Copies of the 26-page report can be obtained for $5.00. Proceeds will benefit the Crown boycott fund. For a copy of the report, please call 713-534-8185, e-mail RP1913@hotmail.com or write to Robert Phillips of Local 4-227 at 704 E. Pasadena Freeway, Pasadena Texas 77506. The latest information on the campaign against Crown can be found at www.crownboycott.org.