PARIS: The two executives of Goodyear’s French unit held hostage for two days by a union over a plant closure were freed after police intervened.
Goodyear had refused to open talks with the union until the release of the executives. The union, called CGT, said it now plans to occupy the plant.
Workers are burning tires outside the plant, putting the area under a cloud of black smoke, a spokesman for the local authority said.
“The show is only just beginning,” said Mickael Wamen, leader of the CGT union at Goodyear’s Amiens-Nord factory, at a press conference after the release of the hostages.
The hostage-taking had been the latest twist in Goodyear’s woes in France.
The Akron-based company, which employs about 3,000 in France, announced plans a year ago to shut a facility after failing to reach an accord after five years of talks with the CGT, the main union at the site.
The company’s plans, which put 1,173 jobs at risk, have caused violent clashes that left 19 police officers injured in March. Also, there were demonstrations in February at Goodyear’s local headquarters in Rueil-Malmaison by workers and their families. The CGT has also filed a lawsuit in Ohio.
The stalemate drew the attention of the French government last year, with Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg seeking a buyer for the plant. The government’s involvement came as President Francois Hollande struggles to curb an unemployment rate that rose to 10.9 percent, the highest in almost 16 years.
CGT released the hostages under pressure from local authorities and police. The managers who had been detained were Michel Dheilly, director of production at Goodyear’s Amiens-Nord plant in northern France, and Bernard Glesser, head of the site’s human resources department.
“Condemning this kind of action, the local authorities are calling on the management and the union to return to the table and renew a constructive dialogue,” the regional office said in an e-mailed statement.
French unions have taken executives hostage in the past to force negotiations. In 2009, bosses at French units of Caterpillar, 3M and Sony were among executives held hostage by workers unhappy with job cuts and severance pay.
In Goodyear’s case, the regional municipal authority mediated to try and bring the company’s management and the unions together for talks.
Montebourg got involved in a public spat last year with Titan International Inc. Chairman Maurice Taylor, who had considered investing in the farm-tire operations of the factory.