You really have to hand it to the French - no single country does
dramatic industrial disputes like them. Usually it?s farmers doing
things like dumping manure in front of government buildings. Usually it gives sub-editors the chance to think up clever headlines like ?French farmers DUMP on MacDonalds? (get it?) But it seems in a post-Lehman world, weapons like manure are no longer effective. That?s why workers at a French car parts supplier have instead rigged their plant with gas canisters and are threatening to blow up the plant. The employees of engine parts maker New Fabris are demanding that the supplier?s two biggest clients Renault and PSA Peugeot Citroen pay 30,000 pounds to each of the 366 workers facing unemployment.

This dispute follows a wave of boss-nappings earlier in the year.
While barricading your boss is nothing new in France (in fact it could
be seen as a national past-time), increased tensions have meant more and more bosses are finding themselves locked up by angry workers.
It?s not always so bad, not bad if you?re the boss of Moet and Chandon and you are stuck in your office with a fridge of company?s famous champagne, as happened in 1993.

• Hostages to tradition