Five Air France workers have been arrested on suspicion of attacking company directors, a week after staff ripped off executives’ shirts in a protest over job cuts, reports The Guardian.
Police arrived at the homes of four suspects on Monday morning after allegedly identifying them from footage of airline staff forcing their way into a directors’ meeting where 2, 900 redundancies were being announced.
Another suspect was reportedly arrested later and officers said more arrests could follow. The five men reportedly work for Air France’s cargo and freight wing.
Pictures of strikers storming the meeting made headlines around the world last Monday. As members of the executive committee met to discuss plans to restructure the loss-making airline, furious staff set upon two human resources directors, shredding their jackets and shirts and leaving one scrambling over a wire fence bare-chested apart from his tie.
A total of seven people – five Air France staff and two police officers – were injured, one of them seriously, in the unprecedented scenes at the airline’s headquarters near Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport outside Paris.
At least 10 legal complaints have been lodged by six security staff, three company directors and Air France.
As well as the judicial inquiry, Air France has launched an internal investigation to identify the attackers.
Didier Fauverte, a senior union leader at Air France, confirmed suspects worked in the freight department and were members of the powerful CGT union. He said another four or five staff could be disciplined after singing “no shirts, no trousers” during the attacks.
“If it wasn’t so serious, it would be laughable. To be disciplined because you sing a song … they could punish half the world for that,” Fauverte told Le Figaro newspaper. “I’d very much like to continue negotiations but if it’s on this basis, I think these negotiations will be over quickly.”