ALLEGATIONS OF UNION BUSTING at a Sylacauga ceramics and materials multinational corporation has gained so much worldwide attention that its international union general secretary came from Brussels, Belgium, to address the issue.

Fred Higgs, with the 20 million strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Union, spoke to more than 200 employees of Imerys at the Oak Grove Community Center Saturday. Chants of "ICEM," "PACE will be in your face!" and "What time is it? Union time!" could be heard throughout the room.

Also attending the meeting were union members from other industries in the area.

ICEM is directly affiliated with the Sylacauga workers union of Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers (PACE).

Higgs told the workers that union officials have pledged to embarrass Imerys "out of sight" while they intimidate workers not to join the group. He said there is nothing more basic to workers' rights than to be able to belong to a union and for the company to recognize it.

"The thing that is going to help you is your determination. We will be there for you and make it so hot for Imerys that they will be looking for a solution," Higgs said.

Imerys, a Paris, France, based company, was formed after a merger last year between Imetal and English China Clays Inc. Prior to the merger, Imetal and ECC operated neighboring plants in Sylacauga.

After the merger, Imerys withdrew recognition of PACE and noncertified the labor contract between the two. Since then, union cardholders have been attempting to strengthen their numbers to show they represent the majority of workers. PACE members charge Imerys' administrators with prohibiting discussions among workers and hiring attorneys who specialize in intimidating employees against union activity.

Higgs said legislation in Europe is such that the "tactics" used against his "brothers" in Sylacauga would never happen overseas.

Imerys' officials were not available for comment Saturday, but have said in previous reports that they would allow a secret ballot election and would abide by the decision of the employees.

A National Labor Relations Board complaint was served in February as the first step toward possible prosecution of Imerys for its anti-union activities. Rob Morton, vice president of Human Resources at Imerys, said the complaint is a notice of a hearing and not a ruling.

Union representatives said Saturday that the key to solidarity is going to lie in the way corporate management acts at its Paris headquarters.

Higgs said all the workers here want is to look after their families, and be treated with dignity as they work.

Charles Stephens, local union president, said the 400 workers at the Imerys plant want the company to remain neutral and allow elections to take place rather than taking an active stance against unionism.

"But we have seen them show anti-union material and intimidate workers. Once they said they would not recognize the union, that's when things really started getting bad," Stephens said.

As an example, he said four years ago Thomas Kelly was one of the organizers of a union member prayer group that was held during employees' 15-minute break each day. He said this past week a supervisor told him they could no longer hold the short prayer meetings even though it was on their break time.

Stephens said the workers just want a level playing field. The current climate at the facility has affected morale, he said, but has not yet affected production.

"We're all still loyal employees. I think all of us want what is best for the company. We just want a level playing field to do it on," Stephens said.