France vs The Boss

From overthrowing the king, to tearing suits from boardroom executives, the French protest tradition has come under the spotlight. The images have been around the world – a group of angry French employees ripping the shirts off the backs of Air France managers. French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said that yesterday’s attacks gave the wrong image of the airline and France, “those actions done by a small minority of Air France staff are strongly reprehensible and they have been reprehended by all those responsible.” Air France to cut up to 3,000 jobs. Here is the workforce's reaction…http://t.co/nbsRKh7Hthhttps://t.co/krds3XOAjI— euronews (@euronews) October 5, 2015 But this is not an isolated incident. French hardline protesters have made the headlines before. Here are some examples. Boss-napping On January 2014, workers at a Goodyear tyre plant in Amiens, northern France took two of their bosses hostage over plans to shut down the factory. They even released pictures of the executives. The conflict ended with an agreement with CGT Union. More information Caterpillar workers also kidnapped four managers back in 2009. In the same year a group of workers from a bankrupt car-parts company threatened to blow up the factory with explosives The gas canisters were empty but it worked and the local government and the management agreed to negotiate the closure terms. Managers on the march In France even the bosses take to the streets. In December 2014, frustrated owners of small and medium-sized businesses took the State to task over what they saw were rigid labour laws. (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3”; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));In France, where protest marches are a well-practiced tradition, it is usually workers who take to the streets. But in a twist on Monday, thousands of French bosses demonstrated in Paris and Toulouse.Posted by The New York Times on Tuesday, December 2, 2014 Raging against the machine It’s not just CEOs that find themselves in the firing line but multinational businesses. In June 2015, scenes of chaos were broadcast around the world as French taxi drivers protested against ride-sharing service Uber. A revolting reputation Much has been made in the British media of the apparent frequency of French strikes. A cultural cliche or does it have another explanation? Zack Beauchamp writing in The Vox says that the protest tradition can be traced back to pre-revolutionary France. The article explains that angry mobs would target people for moral offences, “They’d bang on pots and pans and demand the accused be “punished,” perhaps by running them out of town or forcing them to pay some money to the assembled crowd.” He argues that by the 19th century the groups had taken on a political character. But of course it was the mass student protests of 1968 that have sealed France’s reputation for airing political grievances en masse. A very British protest Channel 4 made a point of comparing the Air France shirt-ripping incident with the Tory conference where activists spat and threw eggs. “One airborne egg causes national soul searching in the UK. In France the bosses flee in terror, half naked. Anti-Tory protesters have been criticised for spitting and throwing eggs in Manchester, but in France a workforce in dispute with their bosses at Air France rip the suits from their managers bodies as they try and pass through the crowds.” (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3”; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));One airborne egg causes national soul searching in the UK. In France the bosses flee in terror, half naked.Anti-Tory…Posted by Channel 4 News on Monday, 5 October 2015 More recently the introduction of a 5p charge on plastic bags in supermarkets also riled the UK electorate. Asked Tesco worker how 5p bag charge was going. 'Lots of moans. One bloke said the government should be concentrating on stopping ISIS...'— Mike Keegan (@MikeKeegan_DM) October 5, 2015