And You Thought The President Was Tough On GM's Boss

A poll finds nearly half of all French approve of locking up the head honchos as a way of extracting better working conditions.

From Reuters:

Staff at French plants run by Sony, 3M and Caterpillar have held managers inside the factories overnight, in three separate incidents, to demand better layoff terms -- a new form of labor action dubbed "bossnapping" by the media.

A poll by the CSA institute for Le Parisien newspaper found 50 percent of French people surveyed disapproved of such acts, but 45 percent thought they were acceptable.

"They are not in the majority ... but 45 percent is an enormous percentage and it demonstrates the extent of exasperation among the public at this time of economic crisis," Le Parisien said.

Can you imagine this happening at the American car companies? Or in your own office?

Of course, my favorite "job action" would be this, based on a political cartoon I once read: "Mr. Boss, here's your $2 million bonus presented by the 5,000 employees you just laid off."

If you think that's cruel and unusual punishment, remember long ago in France, when they used to use the guillotine.