Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Workers at a British-owned adhesives factory in France held three British executives and a local manager captive on Wednesday over plans to close the site down,the company said.
In the latest of a string of so-called bossnappings,staff at the plant in Bellegarde-sur-Valserine,southeast France,owned by British glue-maker Scapa,took their bosses hostage late Tuesday,detaining them overnight,police said.
We expect the situation to be resolved today, Ian Bushell,European finance director at Scapa,told AFP. The company is seeking to resume negotiations in a peaceful way.
It was a great disappointment, Bushell said,speaking from the groups headquarters in the northwestern English city of Manchester. We are aware that in France there was recently a number of circumstances in which unions have held hostages but it was not envisaged in our case,a number of meetings took place before, he added.
Three British executives were detained,the director of Scapas European operations,the personnel manager and the finance director of Scapa France,along with the general manager of Scapa France,a French national.
Workers detained the executives after a breakdown in negotiations over the settlement deal for some 60 staff due to be laid off following the closure of the plant.
They are free to come and go within the site,but not to leave it, a union official told AFP. Scapa,which announced in February it would close its plant in Bellegarde,said it was forced to cut back after the market for car industry adhesives collapsed by 50 per cent in 2008.
