By LORI HINNANT
A worker at the Goodyear tire factory guards the human resources chief, Bernard Glesser, left, and the firm’s production manager Michel Dheilly, right, who have been blocked from leaving the plant in Amiens, northern France, Monday, Jan. 6, 2014. The two Goodyear managers were trapped in the conference room with angry workers demanding more money in exchange for the inevitable loss of their jobs. Goodyear’s hopes to close the plant have been hindered by violent protests that included bonfires of tires, government concerns and France’s prolonged layoff procedures. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
France Goodyear Bosses Held
Workers of the Goodyear tire factory gather at the plant in Amiens, northern France, Monday, Jan. 6, 2014. 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 Photo/Michel Euler)
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AMIENS, France (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.
