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15 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 46/2004
The ICEM this week recommitted to its fight for justice and fairness for US trade unionists in Sylacauga, Alabama, against French-based Imerys, a ceramics and building materials company. ICEM affiliate Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical, Energy (PACE) Workers Union has filed further US labour code charges and is seeking stiffer remedies on Imerys union-busting strategies. The US government has already levied unfair labour practice violations against Imerys.
PACE has also lodged a request for an investigation on Imerys by the US and French Contact Points under the OECD's Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. The US union has emphasized in this request Imerys' flagrant disregard for US labour statutes and that it has breached principles of the General Policies and Employment and Industrial Relations sections of the Guidelines.
Imerys has willfully violated global labour standards by denying trade union rights to workers, and by intentional harassment and intimidation of trade union leaders and union supporters at its calcium carbonate plant in Alabama. PACE has won two representation elections conducted by the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) over the past four years and Imerys managers at the 350-person worksite continue to discourage union participation by disciplining PACE shop-floor union leaders and withholding promotions to qualified, long-term workers who are supporters of the union.
An effort to oust the union in January 2004 failed by better than a two-to-one margin and managers retaliated against union leaders and supporters by threatening discipline of workers who file union grievances, and deliberately targeting PACE Local 3-516 leaders with disparate work rules.
Last month, local union Chief Steward Anthony Williams was sacked for carrying out his duties as a union representative. And weeks earlier, Local 3-516 President Keith Fulbright was singled out for unjust discipline.
NLRB-issued complaints against Imerys cite the firm with unlawful interference in last January's election and refusal to provide the union with necessary information in order to carry out its legal representation obligations. PACE now alleges Imerys further violated the US labour code by refusing to bargain over workplace scheduling and training, and the discipline and sacking of union leaders constitute grave infractions of US labour law and global labour standards.
Imerys has responded to NLRB's complaints through its counsel that it does not intend to cooperate with the government's investigation of the complaints. The US union has asked the NLRB to assert its powers under the US code by seeking injunctive relief in federal court in order to halt the company's flagrant labour law violations.
In PACE's OECD request, the union asserts Imerys breach of Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises because "(M)anagement has threatened, coerced and intimidated employees exercising their rights to organize for mutual aid and protection; has effectively repudiated provisions of the collective bargaining agreement to which it is a party and made unilateral changes to important terms of employment without bargaining with the employees' designated representative; has repudiated the dispute resolution procedure provided for by the agreement; and failed to cooperate with the investigation of the competent legal authority investigating these violations."
The ICEM has stood with PACE and its local union in Sylacauga since 1999 when Imerys purchased an adjacent non-union plant, combined the two workforces and declared its intent to be union-free. A subsequent NLRB election on 22 June 2000 confirmed workers' choice for union representation, and Imerys' workplace policies since have steadily degenerated to open warfare against the union and its supporters.
"We are shocked that Imerys has not ended its anti-union behavior in the US and are prepared to do whatever is necessary to stop Imerys from destroying the union in Alabama," stated ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs.
PACE's regional Vice President Don Langham, a member of ICEM's Presidium, said the US union and ICEM teamed up before to expose Imery's brazen anti-union conduct and pledged to do it again. "We obtained support from French, Belgium and British unions representing Imerys workers in Europe and that was critical in forcing Imerys to finally recognize the union," Langham said. "We had to take the issue directly to shareholders at Imery's annual meeting in Paris, and we are fully prepared to do it again."
PACE has also lodged a request for an investigation on Imerys by the US and French Contact Points under the OECD's Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. The US union has emphasized in this request Imerys' flagrant disregard for US labour statutes and that it has breached principles of the General Policies and Employment and Industrial Relations sections of the Guidelines.
Imerys has willfully violated global labour standards by denying trade union rights to workers, and by intentional harassment and intimidation of trade union leaders and union supporters at its calcium carbonate plant in Alabama. PACE has won two representation elections conducted by the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) over the past four years and Imerys managers at the 350-person worksite continue to discourage union participation by disciplining PACE shop-floor union leaders and withholding promotions to qualified, long-term workers who are supporters of the union.
An effort to oust the union in January 2004 failed by better than a two-to-one margin and managers retaliated against union leaders and supporters by threatening discipline of workers who file union grievances, and deliberately targeting PACE Local 3-516 leaders with disparate work rules.
Last month, local union Chief Steward Anthony Williams was sacked for carrying out his duties as a union representative. And weeks earlier, Local 3-516 President Keith Fulbright was singled out for unjust discipline.
NLRB-issued complaints against Imerys cite the firm with unlawful interference in last January's election and refusal to provide the union with necessary information in order to carry out its legal representation obligations. PACE now alleges Imerys further violated the US labour code by refusing to bargain over workplace scheduling and training, and the discipline and sacking of union leaders constitute grave infractions of US labour law and global labour standards.
Imerys has responded to NLRB's complaints through its counsel that it does not intend to cooperate with the government's investigation of the complaints. The US union has asked the NLRB to assert its powers under the US code by seeking injunctive relief in federal court in order to halt the company's flagrant labour law violations.
In PACE's OECD request, the union asserts Imerys breach of Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises because "(M)anagement has threatened, coerced and intimidated employees exercising their rights to organize for mutual aid and protection; has effectively repudiated provisions of the collective bargaining agreement to which it is a party and made unilateral changes to important terms of employment without bargaining with the employees' designated representative; has repudiated the dispute resolution procedure provided for by the agreement; and failed to cooperate with the investigation of the competent legal authority investigating these violations."
The ICEM has stood with PACE and its local union in Sylacauga since 1999 when Imerys purchased an adjacent non-union plant, combined the two workforces and declared its intent to be union-free. A subsequent NLRB election on 22 June 2000 confirmed workers' choice for union representation, and Imerys' workplace policies since have steadily degenerated to open warfare against the union and its supporters.
"We are shocked that Imerys has not ended its anti-union behavior in the US and are prepared to do whatever is necessary to stop Imerys from destroying the union in Alabama," stated ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs.
PACE's regional Vice President Don Langham, a member of ICEM's Presidium, said the US union and ICEM teamed up before to expose Imery's brazen anti-union conduct and pledged to do it again. "We obtained support from French, Belgium and British unions representing Imerys workers in Europe and that was critical in forcing Imerys to finally recognize the union," Langham said. "We had to take the issue directly to shareholders at Imery's annual meeting in Paris, and we are fully prepared to do it again."