Karine G. Barzegar

Special for USA TODAY

Goodyear wants to close the plant

Two Goodyear managers held captive for two days

Workers will continue to occupy plant

PARIS – French workers at a Goodyear tire plant that has been threatened with closure in the northern city of Amiens released two executives from the company after "boss-napping" them and holding them hostage for almost 30 hours.

Still, workers said they were not defeated and continued to occupy the plant 60 miles north of France's capital, Paris, setting tires on fire as a protest.

"We have our work tools and we'll occupy our factory," said Mickael Wamen, an employee and leader of the CGT union. "We have all the means we need. We have 241,000 tires in storage. Let the party start today."

The workers took Goodyear factory director Michel Dheilly and head of human resources Bernard Glesser hostage Monday in an attempt to negotiate better redundancy terms before the plant closes. However, they decided to release the pair after police went to the factory.

As the managers left the company premises Tuesday, they were surrounded by police and dozens of employees, who shouted, "We are not thugs!"

Goodyear has been trying to shut down its Amiens factory for the past five years and while relationships had been strained with management, workers now say they are willing to accept closure, but at a cost – with significant benefits for all 1,170 employees being dismissed.

French labor law requires Goodyear to keep all workers employed during the process, so many workers work only a couple of hours a day while still getting full salary.

Maurice Taylor, U.S. CEO of Titan Tires, caused an uproar in France when he backed off his attempt to buy Goodyear in November because of the French work habits and rules that made layoffs a lengthy process.

"It's really stupid, they are taking people hostage. In the U.S. it would be kidnapping," said Taylor on Tuesday, calling the workers "fools" and "pirates".

"If they did it there, they'd go to jail. We should arrest these pirates, but they're not going to do it because that's how it goes in France."

According to French press reports from last year, in a letter to French minister Arnaud Montebourg, Taylor said the employees at the plant were "too lazy."

"I have visited the factory several times," he wrote. "The French workforce gets paid high wages but works only three hours. They get one hour for breaks and lunch, talk for three hours and work for three. I told the French union workers this to their faces and they told me that is the French way."

However, the share of industrial production in France's total gross domestic product has been falling constantly for three decades and is now the lowest in the euro zone, according to the Wall Street Journal. PMI data published last week showed industry rebounding in most euro-zone countries in November, including Greece and Spain, but not in France, where it hit a six-month low.

Union leaders said later they had decided to stop further harmful action against Goodyear property following the action.

"We know we have a bargaining chip, so the word out there is that there will be no pillage," Mickael Mallet, a CGT union leader told French national station, BFM TV.

"We are not thugs. We are responsible people and they (the executives) were treated properly."

Once a common practice in France, "boss-nappings" had faded away following the peak of the economic crisis in 2009. More theatrical than threatening, they typically aim to attract media attention and pressure management into negotiating with unions.

Even so, under French law, the action can be punishable by a maximum of five years in prison and a 75,000 euro fine, if the person is only held up to seven days, although previous cases have not led to prosecutions.

On Tuesday, MEDEF, the largest union of employers in France, said it condemned any "violent action," which they said was "totally contrary to the principles of dialogue and negotiation."