Fast Pace. A rare, international alliance of social fund managers and unions can now claim victory using shareowner activism. Last week a majority of Imerys employees at two plants on the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama voted to ask the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE) to represent them. The ballot ends a bitter dispute. Walden Asset Management had launched a shareowner campaign charging Paris-based Imerys with trying to suppress trade unions (GPW May 19, 2000). Walden's intervention was among the first times a social investing institution had used its share rights to raise workforce issues at a European AGM. At the same time, PACE got French and English unions to pressure the company, and reported all progress on a website tailored to the cause: www.imerys-workers.org. The mix of labor and investor action proved potent. Management allowed a free campaign and vote, and pledged to Walden in May that it would abide by the result. Expect more such alliances.