MOSCOW, July 22 (RIA Novosti) - Michelin workers in eastern France refused to allow four managers to leave their factory on Tuesday night amid tensions over job-losses and restructuring, France-Info radio reported on Wednesday.
The "bossnapping" was sparked by the treatment of a worker who refused to use machinery he had not been trained to operate.
More than 50 Michelin workers in Montceau-les-Mines locked up the managers, including the director of the factory, and damaged the company's administrative building.
"We had warned our management. We do not want this [job-losses]!" union spokesman Patrick Duvert said.
The company's executives were released on Wednesday morning, after regional officials offered to mediate, a Michelin spokeswoman said.
Earlier on Tuesday, two managers of U.S. cigarette paper manufacturer Schweitzer-Mauduit were held by workers for more than three hours over redundancy plans. There have been several similar incidents in recent days and weeks, including at least three instances of workers threatening to blow up factories if their demands were not met.
French Industry Minister Christian Estrosi was to meet later on Wednesday with redundant workers from a construction equipment plant who placed gas canisters around their factory and threatened to blow it up if they didn't get larger compensation from their main clients.
