More civil chaos directly resulting from economic problems a la Francais

Fed up with the boss? Take him hostage 

Locking your boss in his factory for 48 hours while the entire staff stand guard might seem like a radical new take on industrial relations. But in Devecey, in eastern France’s manufacturing heartlands, 40 factory staff have been hailed as heroes for taking their English boss hostage this weekend when they discovered he was trying to move the business to cheaper Slovakia without telling them. Mike Bacon, head of the BRS car-parts company, is the second British boss to be locked up by angry French workers in recent weeks. On January 15 police stormed an ice-cream factory in Saint-Dizier to free manager Prakash Patel, who had been held hostage by workers seething over job cuts. At least 14 staff were injured trying to stop police liberating him.

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The factory staff won huge media support amid a mood of fear that “Anglo-Saxon” free-trade ideas are spurring the closure of French factories as bosses relocate to cheap labour markets. Bacon said French workers cost him five times more than Slovakians per hour.   Link to article → http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2252979,00.html