REVOLT

French Workers Take Bosses Hostage

Release them after police intervene.

French workers at a Goodyear factory in Amiens released their boss Tuesday after taking him hostage the day before. Goodyear has been trying to close the plant for five years. Union leaders had said they would hold bosses hostage unless give the workers "huge amounts of money" in exchange for shuttering the factory. “It’s a reaction of despair,” said Sylvain Niel, a labor lawyer. "Boss-napping" that lasts less than a week is punishable in France with five years in prison and a 75,000 euro fine. (Workers are rarely prosecuted, though.) At the Goodyear factory, union leader Michael Wamen said the captive managers refused offers of mattresses and blankets.