French Sony Workers Hold Exec Hostage

Once while traveling in France I had the luxury of seeing a workers' strike, only it wasn't a workers' strike, it was the homeless. On strike. So that's French domestic politics in a nutshell.

Add to that delightful mix the recent French trend of holding bosses hostage, it makes sense, then, that if angry Sony workers were going to hold an executive hostage overnight, it would happen in France. And so it did: workers at a Sony manufacturing plant slated to close next month held Sony France president Serge Foucher hostage last night. Why? They were unhappy with their severance packages. Microsoft, listen up.

The Pontonx-sur-l'Adour plant workers released Foucher early this morning - sort of. Actually, they escorted him directly to negotiations with trade union bosses. When asked to explain their actions, the Frenchmen responded:

"He won't listen to us, we didn't find any other solution."

So they barricaded the door to the plant with tree trunks. Foucher, for his part, was merely "happy to be free and to see the light of day again."

Meanwhile the police stood by on the sidelines - to make sure all the kidnapping and resulting talks went smoothly. Only in France.

Sacked French Sony workers release boss from captivity [Guardian]