After a court rejected their most recent appeal against the plant's closure, members of the hard-left CGT union locked up production and human resources directors Michel Dheilly and Bernard Glesser on Monday.
A CGT source said on Tuesday the union had decided to release the two men. A police source said the captives were escorted out of the plant by officers after a regional prefect ordered their rescue. Goodyear did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The boss-napping may be the final chapter in a dispute which started in 2009 when Goodyear management said the plant in France was not competitive enough to keep running and needed modernisation to produce the sort of tyres now required on the market.
Goodyear workers rejected plans to tighten costs and labour conditions while across the street workers at the Dunlop tyre plant owned by the same Dunlop-Goodyear parent accepted new conditions. That plant is still producing after receiving hefty investments.
The unions at Goodyear are now no longer fighting to keep the plant open, but want severance packages of between 80,000 euros ($118,000 Cdn) and 180,000 euros ($265,000 Cdn) depending on seniority. Management's proposals have not been made public.
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