Workers at a Paris factory operated by US firm 3M have released a manager they had held hostage for over 24 hours.
Industrial director Luc Rousselet was barricaded in an office on Tuesday evening and workers had refused to let him out until he agreed to more favourable terms for the 110 employees who face the axe.
A union representative said this morning a framework for an agreement allowing the end of the current crisis on the 3M site in Pithivers had been signed.
Mr Rousselet left his office early this morning to booing from around 20 workers.
Locking up managers is becoming a tradition in French labour disputes, with police unwilling to intervene to avoid violence.
Earlier this month employees at a Sony factory in southwest France detained the chief executive and human resources director of the Japanese group's French arm overnight and eventually secured better terms for workers facing dismissal.
Unions at the 3M plant in Pithiviers, near Orléans, south of Paris, were demanding more money for departing staff, guarantees for those remaining and payment of salaries for those who went on strike over the redundancy plan.
