Sacked Sony France Employees Hold Boss Hostage
Sacked Sony France Employees Hold Boss Hostage
Posted 03/15/2009 at 9:24am
| by Justin Kerr
2
Comments
Print
Mel Brooks may have coined the phrase “it’s good to be the king”, but that probably wasn’t what the president of Sony France was thinking when he was taken hostage by the angry employees at his soon to be closed Pontonx-sur-l'Adour tape manufacturing plant. Workers held Serge Foucher overnight before freeing him on Friday to take part in his meeting with head office officials to continue negotiating their severance package. “I am happy to be free and to see the light of day again” he told reporters as he climbed into a mini-bus with other union officials.
Sony press spokeswoman Delphine Viers said the situation was under control and the manager had been in contact with the local state security chief regularly throughout his captivity. "It's true that this might seem surprising abroad, but it's less surprising in France, where we're more used to this kind of situation," she said, adding that it was unlikely that the firm would make a criminal complaint.
The Pontonx-sur-l'Adour plant is slated to close April 17th, and has been producing video tapes for Sony since 1984. This isn’t the first time disgruntled workers have held bosses hostage in France, but I wouldn’t suggest trying it here. I’m not sure North American CEO’s would have the same level of patience.
More like this
jrbales
March 17, 2009 at 7:06pm
Leave it to the French to come up with a concept like disgruntled employees holding the boss captive for a while in response to decisions the boss has made or has gone along with! I like it but don't think it would work here any time soon since most American employees have been so indoctrinated not contridict the boss or question his 'judgement' that they don't have the balls to do something like this! Maybe if they (we) did things might be a little different.
As for the guy that posted that "BO has to go", so who to you suggest to replace him? I hear right wing pundits complain about the President but, just as with the Republican Party, they never seem to offer any well thought out alternatives, they simply want to complain. Then again, we do have a lot of people out there that, with a high school education, think they have the know how to run the country and get the economy back on track. So lets see some well thought out alternatives to the programs the President is offering that are workable. I'd be glad to hear them!
gatorXXX
March 15, 2009 at 10:14am
American CEO's would demand to be let go so they can finalize their own multi-million dollar bonus's and keep their appt's at a spa in tahiti. All, of coarse, on tax payer money that prezbo gave them in stimulus....er....bail out money. But it's all OK for the workers being let go....prezbo gave unemployment payouts a $25 raise!! <--extreme sarcasm "BO needs to GO!"
Connect with MaximumPC
Featured Content
We introduce Intel's latest class of tablet killers and review 4 of the first Ultra...
Where have all the memorable videogame enemies gone?
This month's issue
Feature
11 Hardware Hacks
Feature
Overclock Your CPU
How-To
Supercharge Your Smartphone
Build It
A Powerful $830 Rig
Most Commented Articles
Latest Max PC Tweets
- maximumpc: Multi-Monitor Usage On The Rise http://t.co/eWfJfCEG16 hours 20 min ago
- maximumpc: Windows 8 Consumer Preview Coming On February 29 http://t.co/3Nd04FdR22 hours 8 min ago
- maximumpc: Can RIM *ever* catch a break? Not today! App World numbers not as great as previously reported http://t.co/3ERRhr311 day 17 hours ago
