Laid-Off Caterpillar Workers Kidnap Their Boss (France)

[girl gone mad]

J'ACCUSE BOSSES
FRENCH TAKE HOSTAGES, STREET RIOT OVER JOB CUTS
http://www.nypost.com/seven/04012009/business/jaccuse_bosses_162258.htm

CEOs all over the world yesterday got a grim reminder of what can happen when jobs are cut after a mob of hooligans besieged a taxi in Paris carrying France's leading billionaire, Francois-Henri Pinault, holding him at bay for at least an hour.

Meanwhile, a second group of workers at a Caterpillar plant in Grenoble, France, "boss-napped" executives in protest of planned job cuts.

In the heart of Paris, protesters swamped a taxi carrying Pinault, blocking and heckling him before riot police arrived to clear an escape route for the shaken, 72-year-old tycoon who's married to actress Salma Hayek.

Workers were demanding that Pinault -- whose holdings include auction house Christie's and luxury brands Gucci, Yves St. Laurent and Chateau Latour -- drop his plan to fire 1,200 retail workers at two of his department stores, Fnac and Conforama.

Pinault's holding company, Artemis SA, had no immediate comment.

Also yesterday, jeering workers stormed Caterpiller's factory in Grenoble, a city in the French Alps, and captured four managers. Protesters said the kidnapped bosses would be held until the company agreed to drop its plan to fire 700 French workers at the factory. Caterpillar plans to fire 25,000 workers worldwide.

There were no immediate reports of any injuries or arrests.

The protests were the latest in a string of spats that have broken out in France in recent weeks as workers protest the French government's response to the economic meltdown.