PARIS (AP) -- A U.S. company and its French employees remained locked in a bitter dispute Tuesday over the closure of an electronics plant, despite top-level government mediation, with managers vowing to keep the company closed until workers ease off their death threats.
Three-hour negotiations between executives of Illinois-based Molex Inc., an electronic components maker, and French Industry Minister Christian Estrosi brought no breakthroughs, with the company only promising to continue talks on salaries and the future of the plant.
Molex temporarily shut down its plant in southern France on Aug. 5 after charging that workers angry about the closure had injured an American manager and two security guards. Workers said they had only thrown eggs at the manager, Eric Doesburg, and that he was not injured.
Extreme tactics, including "boss-nappings" -- in which workers hold their managers for several hours or days before releasing them, unharmed -- have gained in popularity among French workers in recent months, as crisis-hit companies look to shed jobs. Some have threatened everything from blowing up company premises to inflicting environmental disasters to preserve their jobs or receive what they consider fitting compensation.
Doesburg said the plant would not reopen until employees stop intimidating him and his colleagues.
"I receive death threats daily. We have intimidation of our management and other employees daily," Doesburg told reporters after the meeting. "And in an environment like that, there is no way Molex will put another employee's safety at risk."
Labor union representative Denis Parise said he was unaware of any such threats.
Doesburg said the company agreed to continue talks on whether to pay workers' salaries for the month of August, when the plant was closed and they did not work. Estrosi said Molex has agreed to hold negotiations with a company that could take over the plant and its equipment after Molex shuts it down for good in October. He would not provide more details.
Labor unions say that employees who have dedicated years of their lives to companies, have mortgages to pay and families to feed deserve to be properly compensated for losing their jobs. Business representatives, on the other hand, warn that such rigid labor laws and hostile protests will discourage foreign companies from investing in France and creating businesses here.
Molex announced last October that it was closing down its plant manufacturing electronic car parts in the town of Villemur-sur-Tarn, outside the southern city of Toulouse, and laying off all its nearly 300 workers as part of its global restructuring program.
The company then launched complicated negotiations with its employees. But those talks went awry in April, when angry employees locked up two managers for 26 hours. The situation worsened in July, when the plant's workers went on strike, paralyzing production.
The company announced Aug. 5 that it was temporarily shutting down the plant after the alleged attack against Doesburg.
Since then angry workers have camped out outside the plant, demanding that they be allowed to resume work and paid their salaries.
Molex, which has operations in 18 countries, said it has had to lay off nearly 7,000 workers since June 2008 due to the economic downturn. But only in France has the company seen such hostility by employees, Molex said.
"We have never experienced this level of worker unrest and the violent actions, and threats associated with the Villemur restructuring project are totally unacceptable," Vice Chairman and CEO Martin Slark said in a statement. "This experience, with its violent attacks on people and property, certainly is not the type of environment that encourages or even supports business development or reindustrialization."
Parise, the labor union member, said Molex workers want to be compensated in line with the workers' years of service. Parise would not disclosed the total amount requested, saying further negotiations were needed. Parise said the union hopes the government would intervene and prevent the plant from being completely shut as it looks for new potential operators or owners.
"French laws do not allow you to just go ahead and close down the factory," Parise said. "In France that does not happen."
Associated Press writer Rachel Kurowski contributed to this report.
