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 [3] 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.