USW Local 2-232

formerly PACE 7-232

Representing  employees at Briggs & Stratton Corp. and Strattec Security Corp. in Milwaukee, WI

Membership Meeting 

Sunday December 7, 2008

Frank Monreal's El Matador

9155 W. Bluemound Rd. Milwaukee 

9:30a.m.

   Members are urged to Attend this Meeting.

Lockout ends after nearly five years for 252 PACE members at Crown Petroleum in Texas

          The nearly five-year lockout of 252 workers at Crown Central Petroleum Corp.'s refinery in Pasadena, Texas, ended after the workers, all members of PACE International Union Local 4-227, ratified a new agreement with the company Jan. 17. With the ending of the lockout, the AFL-CIO endorsed boycott of Crown gas and other Crown Petroleum products has ended.

          "It is time to put rancor aside and work with Crown to improve the operation of the refinery and its environmental compliance, while ensuring long-term job security and fundamental rights for our members," said PACE President Boyd Young.

          Local 4-227 President Mack Hickerson gave special recognition to "the thousands of labor, civil rights, religious and environmental activists who rallied around our cause and gave life to our campaign."

          Under the new agreement, workers will receive wage increases of about 11.5 percent in the first 13 months. More importantly, the contract protects their seniority rights, preserves jobs and the union contract if the refinery is sold.

          In February 1996, Crown forcibly removed the union members from the Pasadena refinery after workers refused to strike. The company wanted to eliminate most of the seniority provisions in the labor agreement and increase the use of contract labor. This disproportionately affected the one-third minority workforce. After the lockout, Crown replaced union workers with non union contract employees and virtually eliminated African Americans from its hourly workforce.