Suspended jail terms for Conti 6
Tyre factory workers avoid jail time after they were found guilty of attack on police HQ in jobs protest
SIX of the seven Continental tyre factory workers charged over the ransacking of a sous-préfecture have been given suspended jail sentences of between three and five months.
The seven workers were the first to be charged after an outbreak of boss-nappings and other violent attacks as French workers took the law into their own hands in a bid to protect jobs.
Union leader Xavier Mathieu, of the CGT, received the heaviest sentence and one worker was acquitted by the court in Compiègne, Oise.
The seven, who had been employed at the factory at Clairoix, had been charged over an attack by more than 200 Conti workers on the police headquarters in Compiègne after their demands to halt the factory closure had been rejected.
They were accused of destroying state property when the offices were vandalised. The question of any possible fines has been put back until November 4.
Socialist Party spokesman Benoît Hamon condemned the sentences saying it was incredible that 3,000 white-collar tax dodgers who had illegal undeclared accounts in Switzerland were given quasi-amnesties while blue-collar workers who were trying to defend their jobs were hauled into court.
The incident came at a time of more than half a dozen cases where employees had held their bosses prisoner. However, the leader of the employers’ federation, Laurence Parisot, said boss-napping was sometimes just “muscular discussion” and bosses did not press charges to keep relations calm.
Continental has since closed the Clairoix factory because of a global over-production of tyres. The closure came despite a bid by Dubai-based company MAG to buy the site and restart production.
