Two French factory managers freed after boss-nap

Two managers who were held captive for two days by their employees at a Goodyear tire plant in northern France were freed Tuesday. The workers had been demanding "the largest compensation possible" as a part of a severance package for the impending loss of their jobs.

The plant, which Goodyear has tried to sell or shutter for five years, has become an emblem of France's labor issues, and the seizure Monday morning of the two managers — the plant's director and human-resources chief — resurrected the country's once common negotiating tactic of boss-napping.

The two managers walked out of the plant Tuesday morning when police entered the facility while a dozen others waited outside.

Sylvain Niel, a labor lawyer who has worked on similar issues, said the tactic of boss-napping died out because any agreements made under pressure were later voided in courts.

"It's a reaction of despair," Niel said. "They have no room to maneuver in the closing of the factory."

The plant, in the city of Amiens, has an especially contentious past. Goodyear's hopes to close it have been thwarted by violent protests with huge bonfires, government concerns and France's lengthy layoff procedures. Now the plant-workers' union is willing to accept the inevitable loss of jobs — but at a cost.

"Clearly it was no longer possible to keep fighting for our jobs," Mickael Wamen, the union president, told LCI television. "So we decided to change tactics and fight for the largest compensation possible."

Boss-nappings typically last from a few hours to a couple of days. They are punishable under French law by five years in prison and a $102,000 fine — as long as the boss goes free in under a week.

But generally the workers are not prosecuted, and in many cases they try to make the managers' time in captivity more comfortable.

Wamen told the Courrier Picard newspaper that the managers had refused offers of mattresses and blankets overnight.

"Things were sometimes animated, sometimes calm, but without any meanness," Michel Dheilly, one of the managers, told reporters allowed inside the factory.

The other manager, Bernard Glesser, was less sanguine, saying he would not give any statements under duress.

Niel said police rarely get involved, hoping to avoid inflaming the situation.

"These are basically honest people, in despair," he said.

The Associated Press