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SEC Accepts Retired Oil Worker's Sh



Subject: SEC Accepts Retired Oil Worker's Shareholder Resolution to Investigate Unocal's Links to Drug Money Laundering

Thursday March 20 11:36 AM EDT 

SEC Accepts Retired Oil Worker's Shareholder Resolution to
Investigate Unocal's Links to Drug Money Laundering

OCAW President Expects Further Roadblocks from Unocal

LAKEWOOD, Colo., March 20 /PRNewswire/ -- The 90,000-member Oil, Chemical
and Atomic Workers
International Union (OCAW) announced today that the effort by Unocal
Corporation to exclude a
controversial resolution from its annual proxy statement and to prevent a
vote on the resolution has been
denied by the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

The resolution, submitted by a retired OCAW member, calls on outside or
non-employee board members
of Unocal to investigate the allegation that Unocal's partner in Burma is
serving as a conduit for laundering
money obtained from the illegal sale and production of heroin. If the
allegation is true, the resolution asks
board members to determine if Unocal officials had any knowledge of it and
to take appropriate action
based on the findings. 

Unocal had desperately sought to have the SEC submit a so-called "no- action
letter" which would have
permitted Unocal to exclude the resolution. However, the SEC in a March 5,
1997 letter to Unocal denied
all of the company's objections. 

"We are pleased that the SEC acted judiciously in throwing out Unocal's
objections, and we hope that
Unocal shareholders can now become better informed about the real cost of
doing business with Burma's
military regime, which may include a rise in drug use in the U.S.," said
OCAW President Robert Wages. 

According to the U.S. State Department, Burma is the largest producer of
illegal heroin in the world, and
60 percent of the heroin seized by law enforcement officials in the U.S.
comes from Burma. 

"Unocal has had plenty of time to present evidence that the allegation is
false but has done nothing --
which has only added to growing suspicions that its partner is serving as a
front for drug money
laundering by Burma's narco- military regime," added Wages. 

Wages cautioned that further roadblocks can be expected from Unocal to
ensure the resolution does not
pass at the shareholders' meeting in June, and he stated that a "cover-up"
investigation by Unocal would be
no surprise. "Corporations always have the upper hand in shareholder
meetings and only a large
shareholder and public outcry will produce a real investigation," he said. 

Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and leader of the democratic
opposition in Burma who still
remains under virtual house arrest, has repeatedly urged foreign
corporations to stay out of Burma and has
heaped particular scorn on oil companies for their support of the military
regime, 

OCAW notes that, if Unocal ignores this allegation and it later turns out to
be true, the company along
with its officers and directors will expose themselves to significant
criminal and civil liability under U.S.
law. Furthermore, if Unocal management knowingly ignores employee
wrongdoing, they breach their
fiduciary duty and can be held personally liable in derivative lawsuits.
Unocal shareholders can take action
against management and directors to protect the reputation of their company
and the value of their shares.

Unocal's partners in the construction of a natural gas line across Burma are
French-owned Total SA and
the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), which was established by Burma's
military regime. The
drug-laundering allegation was made in a December 16, 1996 article of "The
Nation," which reported on
findings from a four year investigation by Geopolitical Drugwatch that MOGE
was the major channel for
laundering revenues of heroin produced and exported by Burma's military regime. 

According to the allegation, hundreds of millions of dollars have flowed out
of MOGE's coffers to its
Singapore bank accounts and in one instance $60 million were channeled
through MOGE by Khun Sa,
purported to be Burma's most renowned drug lord. Khun Sa has been indicted
in New York by a federal
prosecutor and now lives in Rangoon under the protective umbrella of Burma's
narco-regime. Other than
limited payments made to MOGE by Unocal and Total, MOGE has no other
identifiable source of income. 

OCAW plans to mobilize its 90,000 members in late April in a "Three Days for
Burma" campaign which
will include a petition drive calling on President Clinton to impose
immediate economic sanctions on
Burma's military regime. In February, the 12.9 million member AFL-CIO passed
a strongly-worded
resolution supporting the imposition of immediate economic sanctions and the
passage of selective
purchasing laws to isolate Burma's military regime. SOURCE Oil, Chemical, &
Atomic Workers
International Union