Captive Goodyear bosses holed up at French site

Two Goodyear managers, production manager Michel Dheilly and Human Resources director Bernard Glesser, were blocked from leaving the plant on Monday, with angry workers demanding more money in exchange for the inevitable loss of their jobs. AP

PARIS—Two Goodyear bosses held captive by workers spent the night inside a factory in northern France that the company wants to close.

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 of the two managers—the plant’s director and human resources chief—resurrected the once-common practice of boss-napping.

Sylvain Niel, a labor lawyer who has worked on similar issues, said the tactic fell away because any agreements under pressure were later voided in courts. He described it as an act of despair by workers “without room to maneuver.”

But the Amiens plant has an especially contentious past, with sometimes violent protests against the closure.

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