French workers of Nortel factory in Châteaufort are topping New Fabris occupants. While the latter demand only 30.000 Euros as redundancy compensation, workers of Nortel want 100.000 Euros each - for 450 people.

They have placed a banner with a simple message over the entrance and next to some 10 gas canisters: BOUM. Police claim that the gas bottles are empty, but workers say this is not true.

„People hear have nothing to loose, and they mean it", says a trade union official. If they don´t meet our demands, they will blow up the plant.

Nortel is west of Paris, the plant is part of a Canadian international telecommunication company. They bosses have helped themselvers to generous bonusses but let Nortel Chateaufort go down the hill into insolvency.

It´s the arrogancy of the bosses, the fear of mass redundancies in the current crisis plus France´s revolutionary tradition which combines into an explosive mixture.

Also, only 30 % of the french worl force are organised in unions; and this makes it very difficult for trade union officials to control the protests.

600.000 workers will get the sack in France by autumn this year, and there´s worse to come.