SYLACAUGA — IMERYS officials say they are carefully investigating recent safety violations imposed by the Mine Safety and Health Administration for a 17-day period this year.The 48 citiations pending before MSHA include 44 issued to the company and four to contractors working on the IMERYS site.
The citations are pending hearings, appeals and other actions, according to MSHA’s Web site. The Department of Labor oversees MSHA, which issues and monitors these violations within the United States.
"Despite our efforts, safety issues will always arise in an industrial and mining environment," said Ray Barker, director of Human Resources and Labor Relations for North American Performance Minerals of IMERYS in Georgia. "IMERYS takes all MSHA findings very seriously, and IMERYS has a long history of positive cooperation with MSHA. We are carefully investigating the recent citations and IMERYS will take appropriate action on every citation. Importantly, the majority of cited violations were corrected on the same day as the inspection."
Barker said IMERYS is dedicated to the safety and health of all its employees.
"Our safety performance in Sylacauga has been consistently excellent and improving due to the efforts of many employees and a new safety program. In 2001, the IMERYS Sylacauga operation won the Sentinels of Safety Award, which is the single most prestigious award presented by MSHA and the National Mining Association in the United States," he said.
In addition, Barker said an IMERYS employee serves as president of the Joseph A. Holmes Safety Association Central Alabama Chapter and has been asked to assist in developing the best practices for the entire mining community in the United States.
IMERYS is in its third year of implementing an improved safety program in North America and has seen a 22 percent reduction in MSHA violations and a 10-percent reduction in accidents resulting in lost time, with Sylacauga seeing a 20-percent reduction in accidents resulting in lost time, Barker said in a press release.
The citations against IMERYS are listed on the MSHA Web site.
In a news release Feb. 4, the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union addressed the violations against the company. PACE represents IMERYS employees in Sylacauga, Mayfield, Ky., and Dry Branch, Ga.
"This company has little respect for U.S. laws and U.S. workers," said Don Langham, PACE Region Five vice president, whose office is in Mobile.
Barker said IMERYS takes very seriously any risk to its employees and will address these circumstances professionally. "However, we believe that this latest press release is part of PACE’s continuing campaign against IMERYS. PACE has vowed to engage in an ongoing campaign of harassment against IMERYS. These uses of inflammatory press releases are part of that campaign. We believe that this ‘corporate campaign’ is being waged by PACE in an effort to retaliate against the company because many Sylacauga employees voted to decertify the union and is a misguided attempt to bolster the union’s strength in upcoming contract negotiations for the plant in Dry Branch, Ga.," he said.
Keith Fulbright, president of PACE Local 3-516 for the Sylacauga facility, said last week that this facility had several issues with labor violations and safety incidents based on citations from MSHA inspections.
Fulbright also said PACE has started a corporate campaign to get IMERYS to adhere to labor laws, not just in the United States but overseas.
Barker said IMERYS respects the rights of employees to join unions and the company maintains a good relationship with many of its unions.
"We believe in having a cooperative, positive relationship with unions where employees have elected to be represented. PACE apparently has chosen to take a different approach based on confrontation and harassment. We are always open to restoring a constructive relationship with PACE for the benefit of both the company and its employees, but this would require a change of attitude and tactics by PACE," Barker said.
IMERYS is a French multinational company that operates facilities in 290 manufacturing and retail sites in 38 countries. It is a world leader in mineral processing and is the largest producer of white industrial minerals.
