PITHIVIERS (AFP)--Angry French workers were Wednesday holding
the boss of their factory hostage to try to make their U.S.
employers improve their redundancy package, police and union
officials said.
The detention came less than two weeks after workers held the
boss of Sony France hostage overnight before freeing him after he
agreed to reopen talks on their payoff when the factory closed.
The latest case was in the central town of Pithiviers where
employees of the U.S. industrial conglomerate 3M Co (MMM) detained
their boss late Tuesday to force him to renegotiate pay-offs and
compensation for workers moved to other plants.
"This action (hostage-taking) is our only currency. But there is
no aggression," union representative Jean-Francois Caparros told
AFP. "Talks were held overnight but they led nowhere."
The factory, which produces pharmaceutical products, employs 235
people but 110 of these jobs are to be shed this year due to
falling orders and another 40 are to be shifted to another
plant.
There have been several cases of executives being held hostage
over the past year by French workers outraged at learning that
their jobs were being slashed.
Last week, angry tire factory workers burst into a management
meeting and pelted their bosses with eggs to protest the closure of
their plant.