French workers learn the benefits of ‘boss-napping’

Militant French workers have discovered a new and peculiarly Gallic way to vent their anger over the economic crisis and threats to their jobs - 'boss-napping'. The latest victims are three British managers at an adhesives factory in Bellegarde-sur-Valserine in southeastern France, who were taken captive on Tuesday by staff angry over plans to close the plant and make 68 people redundant.

The factory is owned by a British company, Scapa. When talks to save the jobs broke down, staff reacted by locking the managers in an office and refusing to let them out until Wednesday afternoon. A trade union official said that the hostages were "free to wander around the plant as they wish, but not to leave". The entrance to the factory - which produces adhesive films and tapes used in the auto, construction and other industries - was blocked by a truck.

The tactic is becoming increasingly common in France, where workers take their grievances with 'fat cat' bosses a step further than their British counterparts.

The drama usually pans out over a day or so and involves the workers staging a sit-in, not letting the bosses out, ordering pizza and then waiting for the management to give some ground before releasing the hostages.

There have been five 'boss-nappings' in the last month and three university presidents have been taken hostage by students protesting at education cuts. Billionaire Gucci boss Francois-Henri Pinault was held captive in his car for an hour in Paris last week by protestors angry about 1,200 job cuts. Riot police had to disperse the crowd to free him.

Bosses at truck company Caterpillar, office supplier 3M, Japanese technology giant Sony and parts manufacturer Kleber-Michelin have also been boss-napped - and not without success. The 3M incident led to a new round of negotiations over job cuts and Sony agreed to renegotiate redundancy pay. The incident at Caterpillar prompted politicians to promise they would "save" the factory where 700 jobs were under threat. And following the overnight boss-napping in Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, the workers have achieved a promise to extend talks aimed at keeping the factory open.

“Workers must smash the barriers of absolute injustice.”
Not only has the tactic had some success, it has also gone down well with the public who like the idea of taking on les patrons in the current climate. A survey carried out for Le Parisien found that that 45 per cent of French people approve of the method.

Politicians have been lining up to applaud the hostage-takers, too. Segolene Royal, the Socialist presidential candidate in 2007, said that although it was illegal to deprive someone of their liberty, there were times when "workers must smash the barriers of absolute injustice".

But one person who does not approve is President Nicolas Sarkozy. "What is this business of kidnapping people?" he demanded, pledging to prosecute "those workers who take the law into their own hands in this way".

However, even his condemnation may not be as absolute as it sounds. It was Sarkozy himself who made the pledge to "save" the American-owned Caterpillar factory earlier this month, and apparently offered to bring the matter up with President Obama.