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http://www.expressnews.com:80/pantheon/news-bus/business/2001egte.shtml 05-19-99 San Anotnio Express-News Odd alliance rattles Maxxam Locked-out union, environmentalists raid shareholder meeting By Roy Bragg Express-News Staff Writer HUNTSVILLE -- Rarely has the corporate world been more surreal. Profit and strategy took a back seat Wednesday as a bizarre coalition of environmentalists from Northern California and steelworkers from the Pacific Northwest came to Deep East Texas to infiltrate Maxxam Inc.'s annual shareholders' meeting and stage a coup. Amid tight security, which included a phalanx of uniformed officers, metal detectors and even a U.S. Marshal Service paddy wagon that was parked nearby just in case, the out-of-towners focused their anger on reclusive Maxxam Chairman Charles Hurwitz. "Charles Hurwitz, please come out with your hands up," said protester Daryl Cherney through a megaphone. Cherney says he's devoted 12 years to fighting Hurwitz and operates a Web site: www.jailhurwitz.com. Despite marshalling 1 million votes, or 25 percent of the corporation's voting proxies, the incumbent Maxxam slate of candidates was re-elected to the board of directors, said Josh Reiss, a Maxxam spokesman. That group includes San Antonio attorney Stanley Rosenberg. "It's a contest that we knew would be an uphill battle," said Jill Ratner, executive director of the Rose Foundation, an Oakland, Calif.-based foundation that led the proxy charge. "We believe this is a corporation that's been out of control for years," said David Foster, a steel workers union official, adding that the protesters made their point. "Besides the New Hampshire primary, coming in second doesn't mean anything," said Reiss of Maxxam. Maxxam, as the Houston-based parent company of Pacific Lumber and Kaiser Aluminum, is at the eye of a corporate hurricane of bad publicity. Pacific Lumber is the target of angry environmentalists for cutting down old-growth redwood trees in Northern California. The company, the state of California, and the federal government signed an agreement earlier this year to preserve several thousand acres, but environmentalists still are angry that trees are being cut. Kaiser is involved in a bitter labor dispute with the United Steel Workers, who went on strike last year and decided to come back without a contract, only to be greeted by a company-imposed lockout. All of that converged at the shareholders meeting, where the real action wasn't on the agenda. Outside, they rallied and demanded that Hurwitz be arrested for crimes against nature and labor. Inside, 150 steelworkers made up half of a crowd of shareholders. The steelworkers, who bought Maxxam stock so they could attend the meeting, created an eerie silence as Hurwitz was introduced, then laughed derisively and hissed as he spoke. Many wore shirts printed with the words: "We'll survive Kaiser Aluminum's Lock-out. One Day Longer." When grilled on specifics by steelworkers, Hurwitz deferred to Kaiser Chairman George Haymaker, a move that generated even more hoots from the crowd. "You're the chairman," Leo Gerard, steel workers union secretary told Hurwitz angrily. "You ought to be held accountable by your shareholders, your employees and your communities." Said Hurwitz, in one of his few comments beyond his prepared remarks: "Kaiser Aluminum has its own management. We are not managing them. We are not telling them to do anything." The meeting's most dramatic moment came as Cindy Allsbrooks, mother of David Chain, an Earth First! protester crushed under a felled tree during a protest in the Redwoods, approached the microphone. "I am very sorry," Hurwitz said to her. "I have no malice in my heart," said Allsbrook, who lives in nearby Coldspring and plans to file suit against Pacific Lumber. "I know you have sons and you love them, too." Instead, she asked that the company -- knowing that environmentalists are going to trespass -- take precautions to make sure no one else gets hurt in the ongoing process of logging and protest. The Kaiser shareholders' meeting, which followed the 90-minute Maxxam session, was even more boisterous. Haymaker, hammered by steelworkers mercilessly for two hours, told the crowd the company was doing well but would do better if the locked-out workers would return to the bargaining table. "That's a bunch of baloney," said Earl Glendenning, one of the steelworkers. "They're not telling the truth." Wednesday, May 19,1999
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