Caterpillar Workers in France Take Bosses Hostage

Workers in a French Caterpillar factory are holding four executives in their offices--the third time this month that French workers have used the tactic to jumpstart negotiations. Employees at Caterpillar's Grenoble plant are protesting the company's layoff plans. Caterpillar says the workers hostage-taking is "not helping." Indeed.

From CNN:

The workers were angry that Caterpillar had proposed cutting more than 700 jobs and would not negotiate, said Nicolas Benoit, a spokesman for the workers' union.

They did not want to harm the Caterpillar executives, Benoit told CNN.

Benoit says the protesters' sole goal is negotiation.

Worker protests aren't a rarity in France these days. Workers have done similiarly to managers at a 3M factory and to an executive for Sony France. Unemployment in France jumped 19 percent in February from a year earlier.