Caterpillar managers file first 'boss-napping' charge
Managers at Caterpillar Inc. filed France's first criminal complaints for illegal detention after they were held hostage in their office for 24 hours last month by workers protesting job cuts.
The prosecutor in Grenoble, in southwest France, where the Caterpillar plant is located, is investigating the complaint, a member of his office said today. Peoria-based Caterpillar, the world's largest maker of construction equipment, had planned to cut 733 jobs, or 25 percent of its French workforce, as part of a worldwide restructuring.
"It's shameful that management is heading in that direction," Vincent Ingella, a representative of the CFDT union, said today on i-tele television station, alluding to the criminal complaint. "They are fueling the fire."
Rising labor unrest in France over job cuts and severance pay has led to several incidents since March of "bossnapping" in which managers are held against their will. Executives of U.S. companies 3M Co. and Molex Inc., British glue-maker Scapa Group Plc and Japan's Sony Corp. were held hostage to force them into new negotiations.
The trend poses a challenge for the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy as the French economy braces for its worst recession since World War II. Bank of France expects the economy to shrink 2.5 percent this year. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development projects French unemployment at almost 10 percent from 8.2 percent now.
While French authorities have stayed largely on the sidelines until now, earlier this week, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said workers who turn violent during these protests will be prosecuted.
First Complaint
"I have to have the law respected and if it is not respected, there is a risk to the social fabric," he said on France Inter radio on April 22. His comments came after workers in France at German company Continental AG vandalized a local government building and made a bonfire of tires to protest a court decision authorizing the closing of their plant.
The Caterpillar complaint marks the first time a company has sought to take legal action for the hostage taking.
Four Caterpillar managers, including the plant's director and head of human resources, were held overnight on March 31 in protest over the job cuts.
They were treated well and fed pizza for dinner by the workers who held them, Patrick Bernard, a representative of the Confederation Generale du Travail union, said on April 1.
A spokeswoman for French unit of Caterpillar, which makes hydraulic excavators, track loaders, wheeled excavators and track-type tractors in Grenoble, did not immediately return a call for comment on the complaint.
Agence France-Presse reported the criminal complaint earlier today. AFP said that the complaint was filed against "X" because the managers were unwilling to name their captors.