Recent labor unrest in France has seen the rise of a new trend in labor-management relations. Some French workers are holding company executive's hostage. Anchor Marco Werman finds out more from journalist Ann-Elisabeth Moutet.
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MARCO WERMAN: Quickly now – what do Sony, Caterpillar, and 3M have in common? Well, they're multi-national industrial giants of course, but here's another thing those three companies share: they've all had executives held against their will by French workers. These boss-nappings have become common in France in recent weeks. Typically, the executives are held in their offices, sometimes overnight, for forced negotiations with union leaders. Ann-Elisabeth Moutet is a French political commentator for the Sunday Telegraph. And Ann-Elisabeth, this rash of boss detentions is not entirely new – there was a wave of it in the 1980's, but it seems the trend is back and picking up speed?
ANN-ELISABETH MOUTET: It's picked up speed, but it's never stopped happening from time to time. And while this is not something to be concerned, it's something that's not seen so badly in France because it's usually never violent, because the boss-nappers know perfectly well that if they mistreat people they will lose any kind of public support. And you said they do this to have forced negotiations – usually this happens when jobs are being cut, when you have layoffs, when factories are being closed – which of course is happening much more right now in the recession. And because it's always very difficult in a very top-down, very hierarchical society as France to get somebody in office to talk with you.
WERMAN: Civilized forced attentions of managers. How do the workers treat them in captivity?
MOUTET: Well, this being France, they feed them well. And I know that, believe it or not, the French bosses union have coaching courses for top managers. You know, what happens --- what do you do if you are boss-napped? And I preface that because it's always done most of the time in a fairly peaceful way. The union leaders themselves have got also coaching and how to boss-nap properly.
WERMAN: So it's kind of kidnapping with a rider for a Michelin two-star rating?
MOUTET: You know, they bring them French sandwiches with baguettes. It's not that bad.
WERMAN: So how exactly do these bosses get kind of pulled aside? They're not using arms or guns or anything?
MOUTET: Oh, usually you put in your offer at the computer. You have a delegation of two or three or four people who you actually know and have known over the years, and they say, “Look. Really sorry, but this is it. We want a negotiation. You can't go out. You can walk about the place. You can go use the bathroom, of course – we will bring you food. But we want to have talks and we want to discuss things.†And it's the something that happens usually when there's a feeling of desperation. It's the sort of thing that you would imagine – that the French would imagine that would happen in places like Flint, Michigan. But of course it's not the American way.
WERMAN: Have the workers ever obtained satisfaction from these boss nappings?
MOUTET: Well, I don't think there's been any kind of case in which they've actually saved a whole factory. But they certainly may have saved jobs or at least organized it so people got either retraining or better severance pay. You know, some conditions.
WERMAN: If this was done in the United States – you know, somebody being held against their will with either a gun or a knife or just being told, “You're not leaving your office,†it would constitute kidnapping. Are there prosecutions for this kind of thing in France?
MOUTET: Very rarely. But you said “with a gun or a knifeâ€. Never of the workers involved. It's not the French way. It would be frowned upon. They would lose any kind of popular support. So far, people see them a bit like Robin Hood, and prosecution – it is possible technically to prosecute the [INDISCERINBLE]. But I hope, you know, people get nothing in which case, already being fired, you know, do you really want to prosecute when again, it usually isn't violent? If they get something, everybody has reached the point when they got something in the negotiation, in which case to sour everything again by having the lawsuit is not something that happens very often.
WERMAN: All right. Vive la boss-napping, I guess. Ann-Elisabeth Moutet, political commentator for London's Sunday Telegraph, speaking with us from Paris. Thank you very much.
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