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Numerous years of experience in tourism working for a No. 1 British tour operator.
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Spanish to English: “VOY AL PARO, PERO SECUESTRO AL JEFE” - “I’M BEING MADE REDUNDANT SO I’LL KIDNAP THE BOSS”
Source text - Spanish PERIÓDICO: EL PAÍS – 13 DE ABRIL 2009
“VOY AL PARO, PERO SECUESTRO AL JEFE”
El martes, el presidente francés, Nicolas Sarkozy, decidió ya entrar en la polémica y se preguntó en voz alta en una alocución pública: "¿Pero qué es esto de ir por ahí secuestrando gente? No dejaré que pasen cosas así", señaló. Sarkozy se refería a la nueva forma de protestar de determinados trabajadores cuando les cerca el paro o el despido: secuestrar a los dirigentes de la empresa como medida de presión, como medio para alcanzar más repercusión o, simplemente, como mero ejercicio del derecho al pataleo.
Todo empezó en marzo, cuando un grupo de trabajadores retuvo contra su voluntad al presidente de la fábrica de Pontonx-sur-Adour (Landes) de Sony Francia toda una noche. Protestaban contra lo que consideraban una indemnización insuficiente del plan de despidos que se iba a producir en la factoría. "No tenemos mucho que perder: ya hemos perdido el trabajo", se justificó uno de los trabajadores. La moda se extendió rápidamente en un país que cuenta con más de un 8% rampante de paro y donde el goteo de fábricas que cierran o que ajustan su plantilla es constante.
Hace unas dos semanas, ante un despido de 110 empleados, los trabajadores del grupo estadounidense 3M en Pithievers (Loiret) retuvieron al director. A otro ejecutivo de otra empresa los empleados le obligaron a desfilar junto a ellos en una manifestación.
El caso más sonado se produjo cuando un sector de la plantilla de Caterpillar en Grenoble secuestró durante un día en sus despachos a cuatro directivos para obligarles a desbloquear las negociaciones por el despido de 733 trabajadores. El mismo Sarkozy intervino para anunciar que velaría para solucionar el asunto. Esto pareció calmar a los obreros, que liberaron a los directivos. "Nosotros somos humanos", dijo uno de ellos.
Otro de los empleados que participaron en el secuestro, Patrick Martínez, aseguraba hace días en televisión con toda la resignación y la amargura de la crisis pintada en su cara de cincuentón de inminente parado sin porvenir:
-Yo no quiero secuestrar a los jefes. Yo sólo quiero salvar mi puesto de trabajo. Eso es todo.
Según se extendían los casos de empresarios-rehenes y la polémica saltaba a la calle, los políticos se pronunciaban sobre el asunto. El domingo pasado, la ex-candidata socialista a presidir la República, Ségolène Royal, manifestó: "No es agradable que te secuestren, y es ilegal privar a alguien de su libertad de movimientos, pero los trabajadores deben romper por algún lado esta injusticia". Martine Aubry, secretaria general del Partido Socialista francés (PS), añadió: "Ninguna violencia que atente contra la libertad de las personas está justificada, pero la violencia social se está ejerciendo con tal brutalidad que puede llegar a explicar casos como los que vemos". Sarkozy no había dicho nada hasta el martes, cuando lanzó su pregunta retórica: "¿Pero qué es esto de ir secuestrando a la gente...?".
La respuesta le llegó ese mismo martes por la noche: la plantilla de la empresa británica de adhesivos Scapa en Ballegarde-sur Valserine (Ain) secuestró en un despacho a cuatro de sus dirigentes, tres ingleses y un francés, para obligarles a renegociar los despidos. Les retuvieron una noche. Al día siguiente, los jefes y los trabajadores se reunían en el Ayuntamiento del pueblo, después de que liberaran a los directivos y éstos se comprometieran a seguir discutiendo.
Hay sociólogos que creen que "el pueblo se está divorciando de las élites", como afirmaba Denis Muzet, al comentar estos secuestros en Les Echos. Las distintas asociaciones patronales han señalado con mucha preocupación la escalada del fenómeno, y recuerdan: "Afecte a quien afecte la crisis, nunca se puede vulnerar la ley".
Con todo, hasta ahora, ningún empresario o ejecutivo ha denunciado la agresión, por lo que nadie ha sido detenido.
Translation - English NEWSPAPER: EL PAÍS – 13 APRIL 2009
“I’M BEING MADE REDUNDANT SO I’LL KIDNAP THE BOSS”
The French President Nicolas Sarkozy, decided to publicly address the controversy last Tuesday and questioned out loud saying: “What’s this business of abducting people? I won’t let such things happen”. Sarkozy was referring to a new line of protest carried out by certain workers threatened by unemployment and redundancy, who kidnap company managers in order to pressurise, make more of an impact or simply as a right to protest.
It all started one night in March, when a group of workers held the President of Sony France’s factory in Pontonx-sur-Adour (Landes) as hostage. They were protesting against what they considered to be insufficient compensation for planned redundancies at the factory. One of the workers justified this by saying: “We’ve got little to loose; we’ve already lost our jobs”. The trend quickly took off in a country with a rising unemployment level of more than 8% and where there is an increasing number of factories either closing down or laying-off staff.
A couple of weeks ago, workers of the American company 3M in Pithievers (Loiret) held the manager as hostage in protest against 110 staff being laid off. An executive from another company was forced by staff to join them in a demonstration.
The most talked about case occurred when a section of staff from the Caterpillar plant in Grenoble abducted four managers from their offices in broad daylight, in order to force them to break negotiations concerning laying-off 733 workers. Mr Sarkozy intervened to announce that he would stay up all night in order to solve the matter. This seemed to calm the workers down and they released the managers. One of the workers said: “We are only human”.
Patrick Martínez, another one of the workers who took part in the "boss-napping", commented on television a few days ago: “I do not want to abduct the bosses I just want to keep my job, that’s all”. The bitterness and resignation of the crisis could be seen all over the face of this 50 year old man with no future before him, who, more than likely will be laid off.
Politicians made formal announcements on the issue as "boss-nappings" increased and the controversy hit the streets. The ex-Socialist presidential candidate, Ségolène Royal, stated that “It is not pleasant to be held hostage and it is illegal to deprive someone of their freedom of movement, however the workers are looking for ways to stop injustice”. Martine Aubry, General Secretary of the French Socialist Party (SP) added: “No violence against a person's freedom can be justified, but the brutal social violence that is unravelling in front of us may explain the cases we are seeing". Sarkozy made no comments until Tuesday when he launched his rhetoric question: “What’s this business of abducting people…?”.
Sarkozy’s question was answered on Tuesday night when the staff of the British adhesive tapes manufacturer Scapa, based in Ballegarde-sur-Valserine (Ain), held four managers hostage in an office overnight; three English managers and one French manager, in order to force them to renegotiate the job cuts. After releasing the managers the following day, bosses and workers met at the Town Hall where a commitment was made to continue with discussions.
Some sociologists such as Denis Muzet believe that “a separation is forming between people and the elite”, when commenting in the Les Echos newspaper about the boss-nappings. Different employer’s associations have anxiously pointed out the increase in occurrences and they remind us that: “No matter who is affected by the crisis, the law cannot be breached”.
So far, no one has been detained as none of the managers or executives have reported the violence to the police.
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Years of experience: 27. Registered at ProZ.com: Oct 2006.
I worked in Spain for more than 27 years, firstly in the tourist industry and later on as a management bi-lingual secretary until I decided to settle down and have a family.
To enable me to continue working I decided to become a Freelance Spanish - English Translator and have been translating from home ever since. I have covered numerous fields of work including industrial engineering, construction, industrial explosives, tourist information, recipes, production, textiles, clothing..., an example of which you can see in my CV.
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