PARIS (AP) — Two Goodyear bosses held captive by workers spent the night inside a factory in northern France that the company wants to close. 
 
 A worker at the Goodyear tire factory guards the human resources chief, Bernard Glesser, left, and the firm's production manager Michel Dheilly, right, who have been blocked from leaving the plant in... (Associated Press) 
 
 Workers of the Goodyear tire factory gather at the plant in Amiens, northern France, Monday, Jan. 6, 2014. Two Goodyear managers, production manager Michel Dheilly and Human Resources director Bernard... (Associated Press) 
 
 The plant, which Goodyear has tried to sell or shutter for five years, has become an emblem of France's labor issues, and the seizure Monday morning of the two managers — the plant's director and human resources chief — resurrected the once-common practice of boss-napping. 
 
 Sylvain Niel, a labor lawyer who has worked on similar issues, said the tactic fell away because any agreements under pressure were later voided in courts. 
 
 "It's a reaction of despair," Niel said. "They have no room to maneuver in the closing of the factory." 
 
 The Amiens plant has an especially contentious past. Goodyear's attempts to close it have been stalled by violent protests with huge tire bonfires, government concerns and France's prolonged layoff procedures. 
 
 Boss-nappings typically have lasted from a few hours to a couple of days. They are punishable under French law by five years in prison and a 75,000-euro ($102,000) fine — as long as the boss goes free in under a week. 
 
 But generally the workers are not prosecuted, and in many cases they have tried to make the manager's time in captivity more comfortable. 
 
 Mickael Wamen, a union leader, told the Courrier Picard newspaper that the managers had refused offers of mattresses and blankets overnight. 
 
 "Things were sometimes animated, sometimes calm, but without any meanness," Michel Dheilly, the captive plant manager, told reporters allowed inside the factory. 
 
 The other captive manager, Bernard Glesser, was less sanguine, saying he would not give any statements under duress. 
 
 Niel said police rarely get involved, hoping to avoid inflaming the situation. 
 
 "These are basically honest people, in despair," he said. ||||| Image caption Bernard Glesser (left) and Michel Dheilly have been held captive at the Goodyear plant 
 
 Workers at a Goodyear tyre factory in Northern France have been holding two managers captive in a dispute over plans to close the plant. 
 
 The director of production at the plant in Amiens, Michel Dheilly and human resources chief, Bernard Glaser have not been allowed to leave the plant. 
 
 Staff and management have been negotiating for years over how to deal with the loss-making plant. 
 
 The union is pushing for a redundancy plan with more generous payoffs. 
 
 Franck Jurek of the factory's works council described the atmosphere at the plant as a "calm". 
 
 "If there is no buyer, (we want) a plan for voluntary redundancies for everyone with loads of money," he said. 
 
 French workers have a history of holding managers captive, although so called "bossnappings" were more common during the height of the financial crisis. 
 
 Companies including, 3M, Sony and Caterpillar were affected in 2009. 
 
 Generally workers have not been prosecuted for holding their bosses captive. 
 
 According to the CGT union, the two managers have been given water and still have their mobile phones. 
 
 "This kind of initiative, always to be condemned, is especially inopportune and counterproductive at a time when we should concentrate on the future of employees affected by the restructuring, after several years looking for a solution," Goodyear said in a statement. ||||| PARIS—Workers at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. factory in northern France prevented two managers from leaving the facility on Monday, the latest in a string of protests by union members who were accused by a U.S. executive last year of doing little work. 
 
 The site director and the director of human resources at the Goodyear plant in Amiens were being held in a room whose access is controlled by union representatives and employees,...
– Furious French workers at a Goodyear tire factory have revived the practice of "boss-napping" and seized two managers amid a dispute over the plant's closure. The site's director of production and human resources chief are being held at the factory and union leaders say they won't be released until workers get a satisfactory response to their requests, which include more generous severance packages, the Wall Street Journal reports. The bosses were held overnight at the plant and refused offers of mattresses and blankets, the AP reports. "Things were sometimes animated, sometimes calm, but without any meanness," one captive plant manager told reporters, while the other said he would not give any statements under duress. Boss-napping was more common during the height of the financial crisis and while it is punishable by up to five years in prison, workers are rarely prosecuted for holding managers captive, the BBC notes.