The two produce a number of ingredients used in popular consumer products, including calcium carbonate, the key ingredient in TUMS, and kaolin, which prevents newsprint from smearing.

After combining both operations, Imerys withdrew recognition from the incumbent Local 5-516 of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union, which for 29 years represented about 100 Georgia Marble workers. PACE'S unusual struggle with lmerys that followed may reveal a big change in the way American unions respond to the global economy.

Our People Work for Paris Now

For starters, PACE did all the things American unions do. It filed a slew of unfair labor practices with the National Labor Relations Board alleging illegal anti-union tactics by lmerys management. It proposed a card check, but lmerys refused, preferring instead a snap NLRB election. PACE wanted to wait, and asked for help from its parent PACE International, which filed comments with the Justice Department's Antitrust Division-which still must formally approve the sale of Sylacauga-and to a federal judge overseeing its sale.

"But we had to keep in mind that this is a European company," said Joe Drexler, special projects director Of the 320,000 member PACE International in Nashville. "Our Alabama people work for a Paris outfit now."

That meant rethinking tactics and philosophy by the union, said Drexler. The major discussion going on in Europe today deals with the construction of European capitalism following the collapse of the communist East. And central to that is the role of labor in that structure of capitalism, and whether the global economy may threaten the long-standing social contract between worker and management there, he said.

"I have not heard about labor in your face like this before."
Deborah Spar, Harvard Business School

"What we found," said Drexler, "is that lmerys treats its European workers with respect. They'd never pull this [union-busting] stuff there."

In February, PACE took Sylacauga worker Keith Fulbright on a weeklong tour to meet British, Belgian, and French union leaders and workers, and he visited with his union counterparts who work for lmerys.

Fulbright, a 10-year employee, is a top wage earner making about $26,500 working in what he called a dangerous job with no sick leave.

"I told them the [Sylacauga] story and they couldn't believe how bad it was," Fulbright said.

On May 9, Drexler and European labor leaders attended the lmerys annual meeting in Paris, leafleting shareholders as they entered and speaking after the board announced a 37 percent jump in sales. Drexler was able to speak due to the unexpected help of Boston-based Walden Asset Management, a $1.2 billion socially conscious investment house that heard about the Sylacauga union shutdown and gave him the proxy rights to 4,000 shares of lmerys stock.

"I had to hire someone who could speak French," said Drexler, "but our ICEM rep spoke French and was able to read a statement telling stockholders our side of this story."

The Paris newspaper Liberation reported that a "shudder" went through investor ranks when PACE spoke, calling the action "an episode in the small revolution that is shaking French capitalism." After the meeting, Drexler said he met with lmerys president Patrick Kron, who promised May 12 that "we will not campaign against the union."

'Some Benefit, Some Get Hurt'

"I have not heard about labor in your face like this before," said Deborah Spar, referring to the vigor and reach of PACE'S international campaign. Spar is a professor at the Harvard Business School who specializes in studying the effect of government policies on trade and investments, and their impact on human rights and labor standards worldwide.

"When you're talking international expansion," Spar said, "some benefit and some get hurt."