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Imerys in 'Bad Faith' Over US Union Vote

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6 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 56/2000

Materials giant Imerys was today accused of acting in bad faith over an upcoming union recognition vote at one of its US sites.

"Imerys headquarters management in France had assured us that the company would not campaign against the union in the US," said Fred Higgs in Brussels today. "They have broken their word."

UNDER PRESSURE
Imerys supervisors are pushing US workers to vote against the union.
(photo: PACE)
 

Higgs is General Secretary of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).

An election is scheduled for 22 June at Imerys' Sylacauga site in the US, to decide whether workers there should be represented by ICEM American affiliate the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical & Energy Workers' Unions (PACE).

The vote follows a campaign by PACE, the ICEM and unions at other Imerys sites worldwide to secure the Sylacauga workers' right to opt for a union.

Imerys corporate headquarters had promised the ICEM and PACE that the company would not campaign against the union in the run-up to the poll.

On 17 May, local US manager Randy Sandrik sent all Sylacauga employees a note proclaiming the company's "commitment to a fair and prompt election."

But a little further into the memo, he unveiled his real agenda: "In consideration of the relationship between the company and unions throughout Imerys, we will not campaign against unions in general. The focus of our communications process will only be union representation at Sylacauga." Sandrik also gave everybody the benefit of his own views: "I don't think the Sylacauga employees need a third party representative to manage our relationship."

The results of this duplicity are already plain.

Supervisors at Sylacauga are wearing "Vote NO" stickers on their hardhats and posting the same stickers around the plant.

The supervisors, sometimes two together, are also taking workers one at a time into offices, telling them that unionisation would mean a loss of wages and benefits, and urging them to vote against the union.

And the company is still using the union-busting lawyer Frank Parker to train its local managers.

"One thing is clear," Higgs said today. "Either the Imerys corporate management in Paris is acting in bad faith - or else it is simply being fooled by its US local managers."

He urged Imerys CEO Patrick Kron to write immediately to all the Sylacauga workers, assuring them of the company's full neutrality on the issue of union representation at its US site.

PACE has now brought a case against Imerys at the OECD, which has a code of conduct for multinational companies.