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Unocal board members start feeling



Subject: Unocal board members start feeling pressure

Unocal Board Members from Amgen, Mattel, Northwestern University   

and University of Michigan to Start Feeling Pressure  

LAKEWOOD, Colo., July 10 /PRNewswire/ -- In letters written to four non-
management or outside board members of Unocal Corp., Robert Wages, president
of the 90,000-member Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union
(OCAW), calls on them to "take a public stand against Unocal's presence in
Burma and to work with other outside board members to bring about a change in
Unocal's policy."  He added in the letters that "anything short of Unocal
pulling out of Burma should prompt you to resign from Unocal's board." 

According to OCAW Special Projects Director Joe Drexler, "The letters were
written to specific Unocal board members who are particularly vulnerable to
being associated with slave and forced child labor, heroin trafficking,
brutal political suppression, murder and rape of the civilian population, and
other crimes in Burma." 

In a letter to Kevin W. Sharer, president of Amgen Inc., based in Thousand
Oaks, Calif., Wages said that Sharer, as president of a company "engaged
primarily in the development and sales of products to sustain life," should
ensure that Unocal's activities are carried out in a manner that recognizes
"the sanctity of human life" and that Amgen's image will be damaged by being
linked through Unocal to drug money-laundering and the illegal sale of drugs.


Wages also wrote John Amerman, chairman of Mattel Inc., headquartered along
with Unocal in El Segundo, Calif., to remind him that as a major producer of
children's toys he should make sure that Unocal's policies will not harm
children,   

Wages' letter to Donald Jacobs, dean of J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of
Management at Northwestern University, cites Jacobs' role as an educator and
notes his "special responsibility to ensure that Unocal's activities are
carried out ethically and to set an example to your students."  The letter
further states that Jacobs' association with Unocal will "taint your
professional reputation and that of the Kellogg Graduate School of
Management."  A similar letter was written to Marina Whitman, Professor of
Business Administration and Public Policy at the University of Michigan. 

Wages in his letters also reminded the Unocal board members that "the
precedent set at Nuremberg means that corporate officers can be held
responsible for crimes against humanity."  He refers in the letter to Burma
as "the concentration camp known as Myanmar," the name given to Burma by the
military dictatorship. 

"We fully expect that these directors and their companies and institutions
will become targets of the campaign to force Unocal out of Burma until
democracy is restored," said Drexler.  "We are giving them a chance to speak
out independently of Unocal management and against the company's involvement
in Burma." 

Wages has been one of the most outspoken critics of oil company and
multinational corporate support for Burma's military dictatorship and is
leading the charge among U.S. labor leaders in calling on the Clinton
Administration to impose economic sanctions on Burma.  He has repeatedly
criticized oil companies for downsizing U.S. operations and selling assets to
raise capital for investments in countries governed by ruthless
dictatorships. The downsizings and sales of assets to so-called low-cost oil
refiners, according to Wages, has not only cost U.S. workers good-paying jobs
but has also severely compromised worker and community safety. 

Unocal and French-owned Total SA are partners in the Yadana pipeline project,
which is the single largest source of outside investment in Burma today.
 According to the U.S. State Department, Burma's military dictatorship
derives its major revenue from the sale and production of heroin, much of
which ends up on U.S. streets. 

SOURCE  Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers   

CO:  Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers 

ST:  Colorado 

IN:  CHM OIL 

SU:  LBR 

07/10/97 13:43 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com