Jesuit rebuffs bishops, activists on ending
lockout
By BILL QUIGLEY and LINDA
COOPER
In Texas 250 workers involved in a three-year lockout at a Crown
Central Petroleum refinery are losing their homes and pulling their children
out of college. In Baltimore, despite pleas from Catholic bishops in Texas, a
Jesuit college president on Crowns board not only declines to intervene
but supports Crowns actions.
The labor dispute began when the union -- Local 4227 of the Paper,
Allied-Industrial, Chemical & Energy Workers International Union, called
PACE -- and the company could not agree on a new collective bargaining
agreement to replace the one that expired in January 1996.
On Feb. 5 of that year, company supervisors escorted all 252 union
members out of the Crown refinery in Pasadena, Texas. Crown says it locked the
workers out because the company suspected sabotage at the plant.
The union, says that Crown wants to eliminate positions and
replace union workers with nonunion subcontractors. Crown has continued to
operate the refinery with salaried and nonunion personnel.
The union filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board
protesting the legality of the lockout.
While the NLRB found no evidence of the sabotage alleged by Crown,
it ruled that the lockout was not illegal since Crown had a good faith
belief that sabotage was possible. The union points out that, despite an
FBI investigation and Crowns offer of a large reward for evidence of
sabotage, no charges were ever filed.
There is a lot of pain here right now, says Nolan
Melanson, who worked in the plants propane and butane section. Some
workers are losing their homes.
For the past three years Melanson has worked construction and
freelanced as a loan officer. The Melansons with their three children, two of
whom are legally blind, are parishioners at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in
Houston. Their daughter had to leave St. Thomas University, where she was on
the Deans List, because the family could no longer afford the tuition.
Recently Melanson had to borrow against his Knights of Columbus life insurance
policy to pay bills. Having lost medical benefits, he now pays about $800 a
month for medical insurance.
The lockout has recently brought a Jesuit college president who
sits on Crowns board of directors under fire from a Catholic justice
group in Baltimore, where Crown Petroleum is headquartered.
In February, Catholics for Justice at Crown Central Petroleum,
seeking to end the lockout, appealed to Jesuit Fr. Harold Ridley, president of
Loyola College in Baltimore, to meet with the workers and heed Catholic social
teaching on labor disputes.
They asked Ridley to bring moral sensitivity to bear on
corporate decisions otherwise solely driven by profits. They gave Ridley
a petition signed by 200 Catholics, including Bishop Nicholas DAntonio of
New Orleans, Bishop Joseph Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston, Bishop Thomas
Gumbleton of Detroit, Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany, N.Y., Bishop John
McCarthy of Austin, Texas, Bishop Walter Sullivan of Richmond, Va., and Mercy
Sr. Kathy Thornton, national coordinator of NETWORK, a social justice lobbying
group.
Ridley has repeatedly refused to meet with the Catholics for
Justice group or the workers. He has said that Crown has been an
exemplary corporate citizen and has acted appropriately
in the lockout.
College linked to refinery
The college and refinery have close ties -- Ridley sits on
Crowns board; Crown CEO Henry A. Rosenberg Jr. sits on the Loyola board.
The oil company gives money to Loyola, although the school refuses to divulge
the amount.
David Gregory, labor law professor at St. Johns Law School,
Jamaica, N.Y., said it is outrageous to try to justify a three-year
lockout on the basis of unproven sabotage.
An unsubstantiated but good faith fear of sabotage by an
employer does provide some basis for a short-term lockout, he said,
However, with the high tech and security monitoring capabilities
available today, no employer can resort to such a rationale for more than, at
most, several weeks. I suspect that what is really going on here is an attempt
to raise classic antilabor fears as a pretext for the employer to avoid its
duty to its workers.
Loyolas Ridley declined to be interviewed for this story,
but in letters and statements has said, it is not appropriate for
him to meet with Catholics for Justice and has told them to desist from
your efforts to pressure me to do something, which, in my professional
judgment, I should not do.
Members of the group, however, said they are seeking not his
professional opinion but his moral leadership to solve the
impasse.
Baltimore parish priest Fr. Joseph Bonadio, a member of Catholics
for Justice at Crown Central, said, I respect Fr. Ridley and the others
on the board. They say they are following their consciences. But just following
ones conscience is not enough. The question is whether theyve
informed their consciences by Catholic social teaching.
He cited Gaudium et Spes, a 1965 document of the Second
Vatican Council, which says that in labor disputes there must always be an
openness and sincere discussion between the parties. Refusing to discuss
the matter is not openness, Bonadio said.
It seems that the workers are being deprived of their basic
rights to a job and to a living wage, a violation of core Catholic social
teachings, he said.
Ridley has said that he and the other three Catholics on
Crowns board are fully aware of the rich tradition of Catholic
social teaching about social and economic matters. He says its
inappropriate for him to meet with the workers, especially with litigation
pending.
Social justice in the soul
Said Fr. Sinclair Oubre of Port Arthur, Texas, founder of the
Catholic Labor Network, The catechesis for social justice must be a part
of the very soul of the persons who make decisions. Before Catholics join
boards of directors, they must be formed in the concepts of the Catholic social
vision.
One lesson that can come out of the Crown lockout,
Sinclair said, is the need to re-catechize our laity, clergy and
religious in their responsibilities as social Catholics.
Other religious groups have also requested that Crown officials
end the lockout. The Baltimore Ministerial Alliance voted in early 1998 to
support the workers. The National Baptist Convention, the nations largest
African-American church organization has endorsed the union boycott of Crown
products.
Crowns two Texas plants process more than 150,000 barrels of
crude oil daily into gasoline. Crown also has over 300 gas stations in eastern
states that primarily operate under its Zippy Mart and Fast Fare brand
names.
Separately, Crown is under fire over environmental, race and
gender allegations.
Environmental groups have sued Crown for violations of the federal
Clean Air Act and cited a report that the refinery had a threefold increase in
pollution in the first 20 months after the lockout began and the union workers
were replaced by less experienced workers.
In addition, a federal class-action suit was filed by employees
against Crown in Texas two years ago alleging race and gender discrimination in
employment and the creation of a hostile work environment for women and
African-American employees.
Employees say that supervisors created and posted racist and
misogynist cartoons and handbills in public places, charges Crown denies.
Cyrus Mehri, an attorney representing some of the workers, said,
We have examined literally dozens of potential cases, and we found Crown
to have the most abhorrent and hostile workplace for women and
African-Americans.
Melanson, the butane worker, said, Union members were told
they could go back to work if Crown would be allowed to terminate a number of
workers, mostly women and blacks, and do away with the union seniority system.
That would wreck our union.
Mary Kambic, a Catholics for Justice coordinator, said the group
will try to again raise the moral issues at Crowns board meeting April
22.
National Catholic Reporter, April 16,
1999
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