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French Goodyear "Boss" Hostages Freed With Police Help
Update: in response to the Police intervention, angry union workers set fire to €100,000 worth of Goodyear tires. Call it "scorched tire" negotiating tactics
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The latest example of French labor relations has ended after two days with police rescuing the two executives from Goodyear Tire from the French factory...
- GOODYEAR MANAGERS FREED UNDER FRENCH POLICE PROTECTION: AP
- GOODYEAR MANAGERS FREED AFTER 2 DAYS CAPTIVITY BY WORKERS:AP
- GOODYEAR MANAGERS HAD BEEN HELD HOSTAGE BY UNION
- GOODYEAR MANAGERS' LIBERATION CONFIRMED BY LOCAL OFFICIALS
We are sure management will be much more open-minded and flexible after this fracas. We await Maurice Taylor's next exortation on the "stupidity" of hiring in France.
Via AP,
Two Goodyear managers held captive for two days by angry French workers have been freed after police intervened.
The director and human resources chief at the plant in Amiens in northern France walked out of the factory Tuesday afternoon. Minutes earlier, two police officers had entered the facility while a dozen others waited outside.
The plant in Amiens, which Goodyear has tried to sell or shutter for five years, has become an emblem of France's labor tensions. The seizure Monday morning of the two managers appeared to resurrect the once-common practice of "boss-napping."
The Goodyear plant's workers, having failed to get guarantees to keep the factory open, are demanding larger severance payments.
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The hostages are reportedly in good health and only stated that they were tired...
"le tired"
Wait till they find out they won't get comped for the time.
Let them eat whitewalls
I don't understand why Goodyear doesn't simply starve the factory out, shut down all operations. Don't send the factory any raw materials, turn off the power and water, etc. Seems like they would lose less money that way then trying to keep the factory open.
This is common stuff in France. I'm an academic and have taught in Paris a number of times. In smaller universities throughout the countryside, the students would get pissed and "kidnap" the equivalent of the university president. They would shoot the shit, drink wine together, smoke a few, have some cheese and baguettes, then eventually emerge. Nobody went to classes (en greve is one of the most popular sayings among both students and workers) and eventually the administration at least partially caved to student demands.
They've all been disarmed over there, so you might threaten someone with a knife, but then someone brings out a saucisson, and the party begins. The French are still surrendering. Damn, they really need a new Napoleon there.
I have a friend, similar situation as you being American academic, who was a victim of pick-pocketing in Paris, where they held her for hours until they finally realized she was the victim and they had the actual criminal in custody elsewhere in the building. They released her finally and sent her a nice letter.
@HoofHearted
This comment could be named "Fantasy and cliché" ;-))
I guess the French don't need tires anymore. Unless, heaven forbid, the French have outsourced the plant to Vietnam or some other past colony.
@robertsgt40
If the workers don't succeed in their struggle to keep this factory open, they will try to get advantages in the closing.
As for the French, they probably still need tires, and they probably will buy MICHELIN tires in place - which is 20 times the size of TITAN … and 35 times more profitable, despite the existence of the Unions !
Michelin is making it up on volume...
@krispkritter
+1
Plant doors will be locked down in 3,2,1. IMF will need to issue another loan to help out unemployed workers.
Fuck Bernanke!
(crap am I too late?)
Am I allowed to say "Fuck You Yellen!" or would that fall under the Racial Discrimination policy on ZH? PS. (s)he's jewish
He's a Yewish, a jewish Yetti?
You're not late. The shitbag's still alive.
Coming to an America near you..
Is boss-napping a union term?
Do they get double time for that?
Was anybody charged with Kidnapping or unlawful imprisonment?! ...
You are seriously asking if French police were effective in doing police work?
As crazy as the meme of France is, I am shocked, shocked that the French police intervened.
Yes, they 'liberated!' the hostages...
So let me get this straight...in order to compete a company has to decrease productivity?
The French law states they have to be paid...forever.....what a joke...french economics....not working....and any company that is even thinking of opening up there...watch out....Google maybe...or twitter....lol
Dear America, notice how this 'crisis' was resolved without three dozen heavily armed members of France's equivalent SS homeland security swat team storming the building shooting and shouting "Down!.. Down! ..Down!..". Two brave men walked in and negotiated the release. No show trials... "just a workingman's dustup and misunderstanding...Sir..." Make fun of the French all you want, I call it civilized and respectful.
I am pretty sure the abducted managers would disagree. Is kidnapping leagal in Fance? This episode clearly demonstrates how totally disfunctional France is. Neither it's system of labor nor justice function properly. Yes.....quite an example.
The French people have reached their 'breaking point' in the past. Their 'reign of terror' in which their equivalent Bernankes, Clinton, Obama, Greenspan, Clapper, Dimon, Bush and all other oligarchs got their heads removed in public by going too far. I figure the French leadership remembers this.
"I am pretty sure the abducted managers would disagree."
Don't forget to throw in "it's for the children" while you're at it. You've never worked for even one boss that you didn't think needed to be tied up for a couple days? You've lived a charmed life, friend.
Oh my. Have you never felt like killing some idiot who cut you off in traffic? Insulted you? Insulted your wife or kids? Did you kill them? Are you a complete moron? These are all questions that inquiring minds want answers to.
"Are you a complete moron?"
No, the process is not yet complete. I'm workin' on it.
Look, rightly or wrongly these workers were frustrated. Neither of us knows all the issues involved. My main point was that the situation cooled down without having to call in the SS or put the community into lockdown. I think that is commendable.
American culture was primarily shaped by influence of the Brits so there's a reflexive dogging of the French. I think it can be argued that our oligarchs feed this predjudice as it keeps people from remembering that the French did 'reach their limit' with their oligarchs and punished them severely in the 'reign of terror'.
Note: I didn't down-vote you, FWIW, even though you hurt my feelings. Badly. I'm gonna go finish crying now.
Yeah, why don't you ask the manager how he's feeling about his workers right now? The French invented the guillotine out of "civilization and respect", right?
"The French invented the guillotine out of "civilization and respect", right?"
The French got to a point and said 'do not cross'. I'm suggesting that from that 'understanding' grew the relative civility of the present day.
Hey Tyler, you should paste that link to the American tire guy who is not buying the tire plant in France for precisely this reason.
They did yesterday. Check out the story:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-06/angry-french-union-workers-take...
the french cops are taking credit for management's effort
management just waited for these lazy french union fucks to go on their 3 hour lunch and then they just walked home
@Rising Sun
"3 hour lunch"
It is a caricature from Maurice Taylor.
The work week famously limited by law to 35 hours has become a distant dream for many French, as executives chase ever tougher deadlines and the rank and file look to make ends meet with overtime.
French workers put in an average of 39.5 hours a week in 2011, continuing a steady rise in the decade since the 35-hour work week was introduced and not far behind an EU average of 40.3 hours, according to a labor ministry report.
That still puts them behind the British on 42.4 hours and the Germans on 41.
But, defying some foreign stereotypes of a nation shy of hard work, the French work longer hours than the Belgians, Finns, Dutch, Italians, Irish and Danes.
French middle-management and above worked 44.1 hours.
The shift up to an average work-week of 39.5 hours from 38.9 in 2003 leaves France ranked 21st in terms of hours worked per week out of the 27 states that comprised European Union in 2011.
OECD
http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=LEVEL
http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/employment/average-annual-working-time_20752342-table8
Well yeah, until you back out "hours spent kidnapping boss" out of your French numbers....
You forgot to back out the 2 hour lunch breaks and the several hour long coffee breaks every day. Instead of measuring hours "worked", how about comparing productivity numbers? I think that would show a totally different situation.
The interesting thing is despite their image french workers are actually quite productive :) I think it might even be most productive nation in EU. Remember its all about how smart, not how hard you work. For example my own expierence and anecdotical evidence was when in hotel in France really big window (floor to ceiling) needed to be changed and workers showed up - old one was removed and new one installed in less than 5 minutes. I was pretty implessed.
Here is why sometimes country lives better DESPITE having buren of unions: http://9gag.com/gag/axN7DWD :)
@Singelguy
Done ... and it is not too bad (rank = 7) :
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_ove_pro_ppp-economy-overall-produc...
At least the 2 day response time by the police beats that of Detroit's.
They should talk to the Union Steward about a "go slow" until they get their time "improved".
It was a standoff in France, you knew someone was going to surrender.
Stupid
"You take my life when you take away my means of making a living"
Really conducive to attract foreign investment by anybody.
Might increase hiring by the fire depts.
US industries have been held hostage by unions for decades.