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Workers at a Goodyear Tyre plant in Amiens-Nord in France have released two executives who were taken hostage when negotiations to prevent the plant's imminent closure fell through. The release came after intervention from the police and local council, and follows protests and burning of tyres at the plant by workers, angry at the planned closure and loss of 1,173 jobs.
The hostage taking was originally reported on Monday by the Wall Street Journal as members of the CGT (the main union at the plant) prevented site manager Michel Dheilly, and human resources manager, Bernard Glesser, from leaving a room that they had been negotiating in. Speaking at the time a union representative said the two men would not be leaving until the workers had received "satisfactory response to their requests", but the workers appear to have been allayed by police intervention.
Goodyear has been in negotiations with the CGT for five years regarding the plant closure and the hostage taking follows on from a court case in the US and violent clashes that left 19 police officers injured.
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Goodyear did make attempts to keep the plant open, offering it for sale to rival company Titan Tyres. After inspecting the plant Titan Chairman Maurice Taylor walked away from the deal saying "the French workforce gets paid high wages but works only three hours. They get one hour for breaks and lunch, talk for three and work for three."