Workers at a Goodyear tyre factory in Amiens, France on Monday took the HR Director, Bernard Glaser and the production manager, Michel Dheilly captive in the latest round of French ‘boss-napping’. Taking executives hostage was a popular tactic in France particularly in 2009 with the likes of 3M, Caterpillar and Sony all experiencing problems.
Yesterdays events were prompted with the Goodyear factory due to close soon, with the loss of over 1100 jobs. Franck Jurek of the CGT union told RTL radio that “We want to go back to the negotiating table to seek a voluntary departure plan and see if someone will take it [the factory] over. If there’s nobody, then [we want] a departure plan for everyone with an enormous amount of money.
A large number of employees stormed a union meeting and barricaded the managers in with a tractor tyre. The men were held overnight but police arrived yesterday afternoon and freed them without incident.
In France, prosecutions of workers holding executives hostage is a rare thing.
