French workers free detained bosses at logistics firm
16 Apr 2009 21:27:06 GMT Source: Reuters
(Adds details on release of all five managers) By Gilbert Reilhac STRASBOURG, France, April 16 (Reuters) - Staff facing redundancy at a company in northeastern France detained five managers throughout Thursday in the latest incident of French workers locking up their bosses to press their demands. Around 125 workers barged into a meeting of FM Logistic company in Woippy on Thursday morning and refused to let the managers leave. By midnight, they had let all the managers walk free after securing a promise for a senior executive to bring new proposals on redundancy talks to the table on Friday. "Everyone is free," Ralph Blindauer, a lawyer representing union members, told Reuters. Earlier, employees had aired their grievances over layoff plans by FM Logistic, which wants to do away with 475 jobs in Woippy by May 2010. "We've had enough. We have been in the midst of restructuring since April 2008 and we have been negotiating for a year, if you can call it negotiation, and we haven't managed to make ourselves heard," protester Bruno Damien said. The incident was latest "bossnapping" by workers as the global economic crisis bites. Opinion polls suggest that more than half of French people consider them justified. Government spokesman and junior industry minister Luc Chatel denounced the protest, telling Reuters such action was no way to respond to the economic crisis even if workers were going through hard times. TENSIONS HIGH The planned redundancies follow a decision by top PC maker Hewlett-Packard Co <HPQ.N> to shift printer packaging activities to Malaysia instead of using FM Logistic in Woippy. Staff at French plants run by Britain's Scapa Group Plc, Sony <6758.T>, 3M <MMM.N> and Caterpillar Inc <CAT.N> have also held managers in company premises to demand better layoff terms. Tensions ran high at a French Caterpillar plant as nine employees were tried at a local court for allegedly obstructing others' freedom to work. The verdict was due to be made public on Friday afternoon. Police were stationed outside the plant on Thursday as some employees planned to camp out by the site amid anger over hundreds of planned layoffs. (Additional reporting by Catherine Lagrange; writing by Tamora Vidaillet; editing by Angus MacSwan)
A combination picture shows a view of Malaysia's landmarks Petronas Twin Towers (R) and Kuala Lumpur Tower (L) before and during Earth Hour in Kuala Lumpur March 28, 2009. More than ...
