Sony Workers Hold Execs Hostage Over Pay

[RamboLiberal]

Source: CBS News/AP

Workers at a Sony factory in southwestern France freed two company executives Friday whom they had held to protest the severance package offered for when the plant shuts for good.

Serge Foucher, CEO of Sony France, and Roland Bentz, the head of human resources, had been prevented from leaving the plant since Thursday afternoon.

The Workers' Council representing Sony employees agreed to let the executives out of the plant and to restart talks with management on the severance package. Regional authorities had persuaded the two sides to sit down and negotiate outside the plant.

Talks were under way early Friday afternoon, according to the Workers' Council of the factory.

Patrick Achaguer, a CGT union member at the plant, said the workers want professional training to help them find new jobs and financial help with relocation if they have to move to find work.


Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/13/business/main4863577.shtml?tag=topHome;topStories

[Bozita]

1. The presence of heated tar and feathers at the negotiating table usually speeds deliberations

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

2. I like that. They got angry at the right people.

Maybe they'll even be too scared to accept the golden parachutes now. One can wish, innit?

[primavera]

16. I do too

The aristocracy should fear the people, not the other way around. I wish that economic elites would respect workers without fearing them, but, since they have made it abundantly clear that they won't, I'm not sure a little fear isn't the lesser evil when compared to the alternative of viewing human beings as nothing more than human resources, existing only to be exploited.

[Ghost Dog]

21. That's nicely, put. Sweet, thanks. n/t

[knixphan]

28. Seconded!

[originalpckelly]

45. Holding hostages is universally intolerable to civilized people.

Rage will get workers nowhere, that's why all the revolutions fail. Instead of being dispassionate and logical, they are enraged and illogical.

Don't get mad, get even.

We must systematically rid the world of these corporate fuckers, but only through peaceful level-headed dis-assembly, not hostage taking and violence.

[primavera]

46. Very true, but corporations aren't civilized people

Corporations will quite cheerfully and unflinchingly enact policies vis a vis employees that no civilized person could ever begin to consider. In a contest of wills, I can't help but wonder how long one can hold out politely and civilly offering tea while one's corporate adversary is busily attaching electrodes to your genitals. At some point, doesn't one's instinct for self preservation have to take over? At some point, don't you have to wake up and realize you've brought a water balloon to a gun fight? I'm asking sincerely - I honestly don't know the answer. But I begin to suspect that many of the civilized rules we play by are carefully drafted for the express purpose of keeping the serfdom in their proper place and they only seem to apply to us - the aristocracy seems to be completely unfettered by any of these civilized rules. How much hope can one have of prevailing in a contest where one side writes all of the rules to their advantage? :shrug:

[pokercat999]

52. Peaceful level-headed dis-assembly works so well. I was

wondering if you could point out some examples.

Maybe the institution of slavery in the Americas?

Maybe the welcoming of the Europeans to the Americas by the Natives in the 1400s'.

Sorry, I think the French have it just about right. To their credit they didn't hang the executives from the penthouse suite windows by their necks.

[primavera]

58. When millions took to the streets to protest the invasion of Iraq...

... oh yeah, that's right: the media ignored us and the shrub flew to Crawford so he wouldn't be inconvenienced by the throngs choking the streets. Yeah, that certainly worked well.

[bitchkitty]

61. Revolutions fail?

Most do, but some succeed.

[primavera]

62. Well, and how do you define failure and success?

I'm thinking about the WTO protests in Seattle and, admittedly, they did not succeed in compelling the WTO and IMF and World Bank to close their doors, so, if one defines success as being the unconditional capitulation of one's opponent, then, okay, by that narrow definition, the protests "failed." At the same time, the violence of those protests catapulted the subject onto the front page of newspapers around the world. It took the WTO and IMF and World Bank out of the shadows where they had been quietly selling off the planet to wealthy multinationals and brought them out into the light of day. There are now god only knows how many activist groups devoted to monitoring, reining in, and imposing oversight upon these international cartels. Now, anytime these crooks want to have a conference, they have to factor in millions in costs for security and have to essentially shut down the cities where they're going to meet. That's got to put a crimp in their cost of business computations, to say nothing of making them unwelcome visitors to most potential host cities. The violence associated with the protests may be have widely criticized, but it got them noticed. Up to that point, people demonstrated and protested til they were blue in the face and were simply ignored, dismissed by their opponents, by the media, and by politicians as a bunch of disorganized, naive, idealistic, dope-smoking, hippie college students. Well, they are not being ignored anymore. Personally, I'd have to say that was pretty extraordinarily successful.

[bitchkitty]

64. You're talking about a protest, not a revolution.

The revolution in South America is going pretty well. When I live under a democratic socialist government, then I will call that a major success.

I hate needless violence.

[primavera]

65. Well, I'm talking about upping the ante a bit

True, I'm hoping that, in this country, change may be accomplished by means short of armed revolution. But I am concerned that protests and demonstrations limited to peaceful, polite, civilized means seem to mostly get ignored. Looking back just within my lifetime, the protests that we remember are those that weren't so civil - Kent State, Selma, Seattle, etc.. The polite ones, such an the various anti-Iraq war marches around the country, have gone largely unreported, ignored, and forgotten. If a consensus emerges amongst the powerful that the people can be safely ignored, what are the people supposed to do to make their voices heard?

[Demeter]

3. Not a Good Business Decision

on the workers' part. Kidnapping is not in the playbook.

[GillesDeleuze]

15. i for one am all for concerted activity.

no one had to be hurt.. yet.

[TBF]

24. Really? Would you rather see people physically hurt...

I take it you still have your job and could care less about those who don't. Easy to sit high on your moral high horse under those conditions.

[Demeter]

41. Would YOU Hire Somebody Who Imprisoned His Last Boss?

Get real, people. That's why we have laws and representatives. It may not be the stuff of Hollywood, but fewer people get permanently screwed.

[stlsaxman]

55. Would you work for someone who'd abandon their employees into poverty?

[Earth Bound Misfit]

4. Let them eat cake n/t

[Quetzalro]

5. How did the workers prevent the executives from leaving?

If this happened in the US...I imagine police would surround the plant and arrest the workers. Yet, in France...the workers have made their point. No one was hurt, and negotiatoins are proceeding. Sounds more civilized.

[redqueen]

6. Interesting point. (nt)

[file83]

36. More over, how could any contract consented on under duress be legally binding?

If you physically prevent people from moving around until they bend to your will, then that's duress.

I'm all for worker's rights, but where do you draw the line?

[Deja Q]

54. Or going to the bathroom. One without windows. Or functioning plumbing.

[lazer47]

7. Is it time to bring back the guillotine??

[Downwinder]

34. Do you have a working drawing?? n/t

[No Elephants]

51. Here you go.....

And welcome to DU.

[sarcasmo]

8. They riot well and have the right idea about their CEO

[tonysam]

9. You Never See This Kind of Thing in the U.S.

Workers here are comparative wusses.

[redqueen]

10. Workers here are smart enough to know the police here

wouldn't allow this sort of thing to continue peacefully.

[Echo In Light]

18. I'm unsure of that since most people don't even know what constitutes police state measures

...and when you bring it to their attention they dismiss the evidence out of hand as mere "conspiracy theory."

So I'm guessing it's something else altogether that keeps Americans passive and obedient.

[redqueen]

19. No one needs evidence to know what happens when you take hostages...

for any reason.

[Echo In Light]

26. I'm referring to any sort of general standing up for what's just, not taking hostages per se

Very few Americans will take a stand for what's just, and the reason it doesn't happen hasn't a thing to do with fear of cops.

[Xithras]

35. Or that American gun laws and CCW's make this sort of thing exponentially more dangerous.

In the U.S., an attempted kidnapping (as this would qualify under U.S. law) is nearly always considered a justifiable reason for a self-defense shooting. If American workers were to attempt to detain a CEO by force, and the CEO responded by shooting a few of them dead as he attempted to escape, the case would never even make it to trial. American law has always recognized the right of captives to apply any force neccesary to escape illegal detention.

I suspect the laws are a bit different in France.

[redqueen]

37. No, it's cause we're all cowards.

I have seen the light.

:sarcasm:

[Xithras]

39. Cowards for not wanting to get shot?

What kind of idiot would take a bullet over a JOB? I don't care how poor I might become, or how long I might be unemployed...there isn't a job on this planet worth taking a bullet over.

If the CCW armed executives don't shoot you, the SWAT team will.

[Echo In Light]

42. Plenty throughout history have fought and died for less. US troops have murdered scores for less...

...and have gotten killed for less as well.

[Xithras]

43. Sorry, but anyone who would die for a job is just stupid.

A job is a job, and dying for a job is just another kind of pointless suicide.

Dying for freedom. Dying for rights. Dying to stave off oppression. Those are things worth dying for.

Dying to keep a $10 an hour job on an assembly line making random doodads that will end up in a dumpster in two years anyway? Not so much. Putting your life on the line to get a company to cover your moving expenses when they close your plant? Not even remotely worth it. There's nothing noble about sacrificing yourself for an inconsequential cause.

[Echo In Light]

44. They likely don't see it as being merely "over a job," but I can't speak for em

Be interesting to see what happens here when people have been out of work for awhile, can't pay bills, buy food, etc ...then when the inevitable pockets of backlash occur, those people involved probably won't frame their situation as being 'just over the loss of a job' either, if I had to guess. It's about the sense of being systematically fucked over and cut off.

[AlbertCat]

38. Plus everyone in France doesn't have and love...

....and I mean LOVE....a dozen or so guns. The police here can't WAIT to use them! One or more of the workers could have a concealed one....and the cops might take that as a given. It's because our gun culture tells everyone, from childhood, guns are cool toys.

Like Jud Gregg (yes, the one who pulled out of Obama's cabnet...thankfully) said about the Budget:

"It should be called a blueprint of the France-afication of America."

Can't be havin' no France-afication-izin' goin' on here!

[skooooo]

23. What about the workers at that Michigan door/windows..

...factory who staged a sit-in until they reopened the plant.

Our country has a history of labor activism too, they just hide it from you (the history of it, that is).

[TBF]

30. Actually that was in Illinois, but your point is correct. n/t

[Javaman]

33. Once upon a time, we weren't check out the 1910's through the 1960's on the history of unions. nt

[mbperrin]

11. Bravo! Workers ARE actually people, not just Randian "resources"!

From the article:

Patrick Achaguer, a CGT union member at the plant, said the workers want professional training to help them find new jobs and financial help with relocation if they have to move to find work.

"We are all going to be fired. We want to be treated in a dignified manner," he said.

Very nice to see someone not just picking up their cardboard box on no notice accompanied by rent-a-guards to the door and taken out like trash.

[nichomachus]

12. This could never happen in the US -- the corporatists have Blackwater at their disposal

[Echo In Light]

17. Haha...given the astonishing degree of American passivity and servitude, Blackwater isn't required

[mbperrin]

20. Jim Hightower has a nice piece on this.

While our schools, media and politicians rarely mention it, America's history is replete with class rebellions against various moneyed elites who act as though they're the top dogs and ordinary folks are just a bunch of fire hydrants.

Check out the Tenant Uprisings of 1766, Shay's Rebellion in the 1780s, the Workingmen's Movement of the 1830s ... on into the post-Civil War populist movement that confronted the robber barons, the bloody labor battles at Haymarket and Homestead in the late 1800s, Coxey's Army in 1894, the Bonus March of 1932, the Penny Auctions by farmers in the 1920s and '30s, the rise of the CIO in the Depression years ... and right into modern-day fights involving environmental justice, fair trade, women's pay, workplace safety, tenant rights, janitors, farmworkers, union-busting, bank redlining, consumer gouging, clean elections and so forth.

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/131083/hightower:_conservatives_are_blind,_deaf_and_dumb_to_class_warfare

My own grandfather was beaten by thugs from the oil companies while he was organizing in west Texas for the IWW in 1932. He spent 4 years flat on his back recovering.

[Echo In Light]

27. Thanks for posting! I suspect it's typical for people to not take a stand....

...due to decades of corporate brainwashing/control via propaganda and perception management, as where in earlier times people did fight back, even when the threat of violence was real. Nowadays the people simply don't even realize there's anything to take a stand against. Key difference there.

[primavera]

47. Wow, what a hero your grandfather was!

You must be so proud of him! :applause:

[mbperrin]

50. He raised his own four children, and then raised the five children of his

dead son. Of those five, all attended Texas Tech and graduated with bachelor degrees in one field or another.

One just retired as a VP for AT&T, one just sold his concrete company in Houston to retire, another repairs musical instruments, another runs a homeless shelter, and the last one just retired after 30 years of teaching.

He did all right for someone who came to this country in 1901 without speaking a word of English. He was 10 and spoke only German. His parents were dead, and his relatives sent him here to join his brother, whom he never found.

He died at age 86 as a working carpenter with a 2 year waiting list of people wanting him to remodel or add on to their homes.

I really am proud of him, and of my grandmother, who took in laundry while he was unable to work because of his injuries, and who had children in the house until she was 83 years old, dying the next year.

They were good people. I'm trying to be.

[primavera]

57. Talk about a tough act to follow

Good luck to you and thank you for sharing their story!

[Wednesdays]

13. Now, why did I, before clicking this link, predict correctly this was not in America

I was wrong for thinking it was in Japan...but still, France.

Yeah, American workers standing up for their rights...still a pipe dream...

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

67. Because in America you go to jail for participating in a kidnapping. n/t

[dmr]

14. Viva la France! n/t

[skooooo]

22. WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE!

[cliffordu]

25. A fine example of negotiating for real.

[sasquatch]

29. TO ARMS CITIZENS!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0cI7HWFC2A
Lyrics at the link as well on the video
Let's go children of the fatherland,
The day of glory has arrived!
Against us tyranny's
Bloody flag is raised! (repeat)
In the countryside, do you hear
The roaring of these fierce soldiers?
They come right to our arms
To slit the throats of our sons, our friends!

Refrain

Grab your weapons, citizens!
Form your batallions!
Let us march! Let us march!
May impure blood
Water our fields!


This horde of slaves, traitors, plotting kings,
What do they want?
For whom these vile shackles,
These long-prepared irons? (repeat)
Frenchmen, for us, oh! what an insult!
What emotions that must excite!
It is us that they dare to consider
Returning to ancient slavery!

What! These foreign troops
Would make laws in our home!
What! These mercenary phalanxes
Would bring down our proud warriors! (repeat)
Good Lord! By chained hands
Our brows would bend beneath the yoke!
Vile despots would become
The masters of our fate!

Tremble, tyrants! and you, traitors,
The disgrace of all groups,
Tremble! Your parricidal plans
Will finally pay the price! (repeat)
Everyone is a soldier to fight you,
If they fall, our young heros,
France will make more,
Ready to battle you!

Frenchmen, as magnanimous warriors,
Bear or hold back your blows!
Spare these sad victims,
Regretfully arming against us. (repeat)
But not these bloodthirsty despots,
But not these accomplices of Bouillé,
All of these animals who, without pity,
Tear their mother's breast to pieces!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sacred love of France,
Lead, support our avenging arms!
Liberty, beloved Liberty,
Fight with your defenders! (repeat)
Under our flags, let victory
Hasten to your manly tones!
May your dying enemies
See your triumph and our glory!

Refrain

We will enter the pit
When our elders are no longer there;
There, we will find their dust
And the traces of their virtues. (repeat)
Much less eager to outlive them
Than to share their casket,
We will have the sublime pride
Of avenging them or following them!

Refrain

[Joanne98]

31. The French know how to deal with this. The French revolution was a success

Off with their heads WORKS!

[TBF]

32. K&R for our sisters/brothers in France. In solidarity. n/t

[truthisfreedom]

40. I have no idea how these things work in France, but a lot of people would have been arrested here.

It's just not something you can do in the states. Holding people "hostage" doesn't wash under any circumstances, even if they're criminals.

[wroberts189]

48. They got them back to the table..impressive

Since both sides were reasonable ..no one was hurt and standoff was diffused. The best ending possible.

Why cannot this country understand ? You want to send in swat teams and put previously working innocent and now desperate people in jail ?...set an example perhaps?

show them who is in charge? FOR WHAT HIGHER PURPOSE??

I know who's side I am on.

[pfitz59]

49. The Peasants are Revolting!

An elitest nightmare!

[Deja Q]

53. Damn French. I wants me a plate of freedom fries.

:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:
:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:
:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:
:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:
:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:
:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:
:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:
:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:
:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:
:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:
:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:
:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:
:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:
:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:
:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:
:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:
:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:
:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:
:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:
:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:

[Amonester]

56. Les Aristocrates A La Lanterne !

Ah ! Ca ira ! Ca ira ! Ca ira !
Les Aristocrates On Les Pendra !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35UnkTdPhO0&NR=1

(francaise make neo-aristocrasses sh*t in their under's) :web:

[primavera]

59. Aux armes, citoyens!

Your post set me to thinking about how the French embrace and celebrate their revolutionary heritage, including watering their fields with the blood of their oppressors, while here, we superficially pay homage to our revolutionary beginnings, yet nowadays seem mostly ashamed of anyone who resists oppression through extra legal devices. An interesting difference.

[JI7]

60. even if this did happen in the United States, most would probably side with the executives

over workers. while in France and other places there is probably more sympathy with the workers.

[Nihil]

63. You can see that just in this thread. (n/t)

[lonestarnot]

66. Shit! Too late to Rec. but I'm recing anyway!

K & R! Damn it!

[Chovexani]

68. I've been saying it for years

Rushheads love to talk shit about them but French people do not fuck around. Especially the working people.

Just ask Mdme. Antoinette.