Angelique Chrisafis | Paris | Mar 26

The Guardian - He might be getting mussels and chips for dinner, but that's where the home comforts end. Over a hundred striking workers were last night holding a French executive hostage at a health products plant in the latest in a trend of "bossnappings".

Luc Rousselet, the French director of the US company 3M, had been held captive since arriving at the plant in Poithievers south of Paris for a visit on Tuesday. Staff took turns to guard him over 24 hours while demanding better severance packages for laid-off staff and better conditions for those remaining. The company, an industrial conglomerate best known for known for Post-It notes and Scotch tape, confirmed Rousselet had experienced no violence. Journalists saw him through the blinds of his office eating a lunch tray of a plate of meat and mashed potato, an apple and mineral water. Last night staff said he would be served mussels and chips for dinner if he was kept the whole night.

"This action is our only bartering tool, but there is no aggression involved," said Jean-François Caparros, a delegate from the Force Ouvriere union. "It's out of the question that the director leaves the site unless we get something," he added, after initial talks through mediators failed. Workers at the plan began a strike on Friday over company plans to cut 110 of the site's 235 jobs.