France

Sarkozy pledges to stop bossnappings

Article published on the 2009-04-08 Latest update 2009-04-08 10:23 TU

Higher Education and Research Valerie Pecresse (L), Finance Minister Christine Lagarde (2ndL) with Sarkozy on his visit to the south
(Photo: Reuters)

French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday pledged to end so-called "bossnappings" in a speech during a trip to the south of France. Workers have taken members of company management hostage in defence of their jobs on several occasions recently.

"What's all this, kidnapping people? We have the rule of law, I won't let people carry on like that," Sarkozy declared in a speech in the southern town of Venelles.

But he went on, "One can understand people's anger, but people's anger will be appeased by answers and results, not in making things worse by breaking the law."

In the latest case of bossnapping, workers at a factory owned by US-based equipment-maker Caterpillar took four members of management hostage overnight and released them after a promise of negotations and a meeting with Sarkozy.

At the time, Sarkozy promised to "save the site" and did not condemn the workers' behaviour.

Since then members of Sarkozy's UMP party have dubbed Socialist Ségolène Royal a "pyromaniac firefighter", claiming that she was encouraging bossnappings.

In an interview with the Journal de Dimanche newspaper, Royal said that workers must "break the barrier of utter injustice", condemning "this dominant discourse which expects employees to put up with things, to shut up and disappear, to be fired without making a fuss," although she added that she was neither predicting nor hoping for an insurrection.

On Tuesday, while admitting that some bosses' behaviour is "inadmissable", Sarkozy said that the immense majority are suffering because of the economic crisis and behave "really well".