There are worse ways to spend time as a hostage than being locked inthe headquarters of one of France’s best-known champagne houses。

　　作为人质，被囚禁在法国最负盛名的香槟酒庄总部之一，似乎并不是最糟糕的事。

　　Back in the summer of 1993, the boss of Moët & Chandon was trappedin his Epernay offices overnight with only a fridge full of bubbly forcompany. Meanwhile, workers barricaded themselves in the cellars andcracked open a few of the 95m bottles laid down in the dusty warren oftunnels to protest against the group’s plan to commemorate its 250thanniversary with 250 job cuts。

　　1993年的夏天，酩悦香槟(Moët &Chandon)的老板被困在他位于埃佩尔奈的办公室中整整一个晚上，陪伴他的只有满满一冰箱的香槟。与此同时，员工们把自己关在酒窖里，将布满灰尘的地道迷宫里贮藏的9500万瓶香槟酒打碎了不少，以此抗议该集团用裁员250人来庆祝其成立250周年的计划。

　　Bossnapping isnothing new in France, almost as much a part of the culture asbaguettes and brie. But in recent months, the economic crisis andrising tide of factory closures and restructurings have prompted anunusually high rate of corporate hold-ups. At least 10 companies overthe past two months have had managers held hostage, while many morehave had factories occupied。

　　“老板劫持”(bossnapping)在法国绝非新鲜事，几乎就像长棍面包和布里干酪一样，是其文化的一部分。但在最近几个月，经济危机、工厂倒闭及重组事件的大幅攀升，将此类企业劫持事件的发生频率推至异乎寻常的高水平。过去两个月内，至少有10家公司的管理人员被扣为人质，还有更多公司的工厂遭到了占领。

　　Though most have beenpeaceful, and no hostage has come to serious harm, few experiences havebeen as amiable as that champagne-fuelled evening at Epernay. Twomanagers at the French factory of Molex, the US connectors group, werejostled and bruised as they walked away from their 26-hour ordeal lastmonth (and another Molex manager received death threats in the post).Only last week, 74 energy workers were arrested after extensive damagewas done to the Paris offices of power services groups ErDF and GrDFduring a protest over pay。

　　尽管多数事件都和平解决，也没有人质受重伤，但像埃佩尔奈那个香槟四溢的夜晚那样友好的很少。上个月，在美国连接器制造商莫仕集团(Molex)的法国工厂，当两名管理人员从长达26小时的磨难中脱身时，仍然被推搡得浑身瘀伤(还有一名经理在邮件中收到了死亡威胁)。仅在十几天前，就有74名电力工人被捕——他们在一次因薪资问题而举行的抗议中，对法国电力服务集团ErDF及GrDF位于巴黎的办事处造成了大面积破坏。