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WORKERS BATTLING THE closure of a Goodyear tyre plant in France have released two executives they had held captive for close to 30 hours before occupying the factory.
Flanked by police, the two men walked out of the plant in the northern city of Amiens as employees whose jobs are threatened chanted: “We’re not the thugs”.
Goodyear announced in January last year that it was closing the factory, which employs 1,173 people, after years of negotiations with unions failed to come up with a solution to save jobs.
Unions launched a series of legal proceedings against the company, but to no avail.
In a last-ditch bid to save the plant and get substantial pay-offs, workers — led by the CGT union — on Monday “bossnapped” the factory’s head of production Michel Dheilly and human resources director Bernard Glesser.
Goodyear’s human resources chief Bernard Glesser (centre) leaves the plant earlier today. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Goodyear had refused to negotiate until the executives — who were treated well throughout their detention — were freed.
France’s main employers organisation, the Medef, denounced the bossnapping as “violent, completely against the principles of dialogue and negotiation”, while the head of US tyre firm Titan International, who has offered to partially take over the plant, labelled it a “kidnapping”.
“In the United States, that would be called a kidnapping. These people would be arrested. It’s a very serious crime, you risk life in prison. But in France, your government does nothing, it’s crazy,” Maurice Taylor told Europe 1 radio, in comments translated into French.
Taylor, known as “the Grizz” for his tough talk, made waves in 2013 when he wrote a letter to the French industrial renewal minister calling French workers lazy and overpaid after years of negotiations by Titan to take over the plant had failed.
Workers ignite a bonfire of tyres in front of the Goodyear plant. (AP Photo/Thubault Camus)
Months later, he backtracked and offered to partially take over the plant, in a plan that could preserve 333 jobs at the site for four years or more.
Previous attempts
The practice of so-called “bossnappings” to protest layoffs was rampant in France at the height of the financial crisis.
Former President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to stamp it out but failed to take any concrete action and militants employing the tactic know they are unlikely to face any serious legal repercussions.
In 2013, two separate cases of bossnappings were reported in France. Over the years, these detentions have never lasted more than a few days, although they have sometimes been action-packed.
In September 2011, four executives from Dutch aluminium group Constellium held in northern France were freed at night by police who helped them escape through an opening in the railings around the site.
Mickael Wamen, CGT leader at the Goodyear plant, said Tuesday that workers would now occupy the factory.
“We will negotiate the factory against our severance pay,” he told reporters.
One proposal that was abandoned in 2012 was a plan for voluntary redundancies, and the CGT now hopes to bring an improved version of that plan back to the table.
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Can I have my money back now
It’s like’…..burning your furniture – to keep warm!
Why are PwC saying this instead of IBRC and NAMA?
As property prices start to rise nama , ibrc start to dump property
Can someone explain why?
Dumping loans philip, not property. They’re Dumping the loans as they’re non-performing and want to get them off the balance sheet.
If they had the patience, they’d put arrangements in place to allow the properties to return to positive equity and then seek a sale, this recouping more of the tax payers money.
Unfortunately, they’ll sell the loans for a discount and allow the new purchasers to do this and net a tidy profit.
The article outlines that IBRC (IBROKE would probably be a better name) will offload € 15 billion in loans.
Yet the linked article tells us that IBROKE have already offloaded 90% of its loanbook, € 19.8 billion out of € 21.7 billion leaving just € 1.9 billion on hand.
This can only mean, if the previous article is correct, that it is NAMA that is offloading the majority of the loans.
Why the subterfuge?
Why make people think that this is some kind of joint enterprise when it is NAMA that is leading the charge?
Have the shiny suit brigade from the canal something to hide?
Given their obsession with secrecy it would not surprise me if they have, perhaps selling the loans to some preferred customer with an inside track at a serious discount.
The way things go it will all be wrapped up before we know anything, plus ça change.
Who in their right mind would buy this junk?
It might only be worth 30% of face value but if you buy it for 20% it’s a good deal. For the buyer anyway.
@ Irish Revolution
The Banks?
Hedge funds bought it. They will now sell off all the ghost estates etc at a lower price so people that have houses for sale at the min will eventually have to sell for half or take them off the market.
Fab house here in drogheda asking price €325. Hilarious. You could now nearly get a house for that on raglan road or ailsbury road!! So that house is realistically worth less than €150 really.
People and notions ha
What about Bank of Scotland selling on my mortgage & others in their Irish portfolio to a company called Tanager Ltd.
I’m in a tizzy all day because I don’t know what it means for us.
have your say