In scenes more reminiscent of a riot than a board meeting, two Air France executives had the shirts ripped from their backs and were forced to flee a meeting about job cuts when angry workers broke into the room.
Deputy HR director Xavier Broseta (pictured above) and regional head Pierre Plissonnier were mobbed by a crowd protesting against the 2,900 job cuts announced by the French airline.
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Chief executive Frederic Gagey had already left the committee room by the time the meeting was interrupted at around 9.30am yesterday. As hundreds of airline employees gathered outside the head office, a few dozen forced their way in and began shouting: "This is our home."
France's prime minister Manuel Valls said he was "scandalised" by the workers' behaviour, while parent firm Air France-KLM said it would take legal action against the protesters for "aggravated violence".
Tensions had been building over the weekend in the run-up to the meeting and French union leaders have since sought to blame each other's members for the assaults, says The Guardian.
The redundancies, part of a broader restructuring, are the first at Air France since the early 1990s. Around 1,700 ground staff, 900 cabin crew and 300 pilots are set to go between now and 2017.
Deputy HR director Broseta later said he was "shocked and disappointed" but insisted "what we saw this morning is not typical of company staff". He added that he had received hundreds of messages of sympathy from union representatives and colleagues.
The meeting was cancelled, but the airline has said executives are still willing to negotiate with workers "under certain conditions".
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