Crown announced at its annual shareholders' meeting today that the vote in favor of the takeover fell far short of getting the required two-thirds of voting shares needed under Maryland law for the family of Crown CEO Henry Rosenberg to acquire all remaining Crown shares at $9.50 per share.

Stopping the takeover was unprecedented, since the Rosenberg family already owned over one-half the stock. One unnamed source with close ties to Crown insiders told PACE that Crown board members were shocked that the takeover by Rosemore, the Rosenberg family holding company, did not pass.

Joe Drexler of PACE, who has been leading a protracted campaign against Crown since the company locked out union members in 1996, said, "This is a great victory for shareholder democracy.

"The little guys took on the big guys and won."

While the final count is not in, it appears that votes against the takeover outnumbered votes in favor by a ten-to-one margin among shares not controlled by the Rosenberg family.

"We have been saying all along that Crown's problems and those incurred by the Rosenberg family cannot be solved until there is labor peace," added Drexler.

At Crown's shareholder meeting, board members were criticized for bungling the sale of the company, for favoring the Rosenberg family over other bidders, and for not cleaning up the company's labor, environmental and civil rights problems before putting the company up for sale.

Ed Rothstein, the union's coordinator of the Crown boycott for Maryland and Washington D.C. said, "The Crown board was trying to hock the company in filthy condition, and it is little wonder there were so few bidders and the takeover price was so low."

"We unmistakably delivered the message that unless the lockout and the labor dispute are resolved, Crown's problems will worsen, and this applies to any company that acquires Crown," said Alvin Freeman of PACE Local 4-227 and one of the locked-out workers.

Locked-out workers, many of whom invested their retirement savings in Crown stock, also were relieved to stop the Rosenberg family from acquiring their stock at one-half of one-third of its original value.

PACE also thanked the AFL-CIO Office of Investment, whose work in communicating with and educating various Crown investors was critical.

For further information on the entire PACE campaign against Crown, see www.crownboycott.org .