Threats Seattle Mariners and ultimatums are not

"Threats gleans baseball tickets and ultimatums retells are not the answer to anything," hetold French state television. More recently, workers have also threatenedto blow up factories to demand better redundancy payments. French Labour Minister Xavier Darcos criticised thecontinuing militancy. Earlier this year staff at French plants run by Sony, 3M andCaterpillar protested job losses by holding managers overnightat their workplaces. El-Aouffir told French television the situation had beentense.

"I understand (the anger) but I don't think this is thesolution for finding a way out of the conflict," he said ken griffey jr . The workers want 30,000 euro ($42,600) pay-offs, butunionists said El-Aouffir had offered them just 1,400 euros ortransfers to new positions within the group as refusecollectors . Servisair, a division of French industrial services groupDerichebourg (DBG.PA), which has 337 employees, went intoadministration in March . The detention of the two managers was the latest case ofso-called "boss-napping" to hit recession-bound France thisyear, prompting the government to urge restraint . But workers released both men after a bailiff intervened ontheir behalf. Union representatives then headed to local lawcourts to try to negotiate improved redundancy terms with acourt-appointed administrator and a government official.

Around 60 workers had prevented Servisair Cargo directorsAbderrahmane El-Aouffir and Andy Cowie from leaving the firm'soffices after they had refused to meet their demands for betterlayoff terms mariners quilt . * Two managers held over redundancy dispute France * "Boss-napping" becoming more common in France (Re-leads with managers' release) PARIS, July 24 (Reuters) - Workers facing the sack from anair cargo company released the two managers they held overnightat Paris' Roissy airport on Friday after a court officialintervened, trade union representatives told Reuters . [ID:nLM397666] On the political front, the opposition Conservativescaptured a parliamentary seat from ruling Labour with a largemajority of the votes, a repeat of which would give them alandslide in a national election, due within a year.[ID:nLO146544] (Reporting by Harpreet Bhal; editing Karen Foster) Stocks . Vodafone (VOD.L) gained 2.9 percent after Europe's largesttelecoms firm by revenue reported a slight decline in organicsales that was in line with muted market expectations.[ID:nLN357408] Pennon Group (PNN.L) was the index's biggest faller, down4.9 percent, after the water utilities company was downgraded byHSBC to "neutral" from "overweight" following OFWAT's order onThursday for water companies to cut bills . Food retailers extended losses as traders continued to takeprofits, following a spike in shares after Wm Morrison (MRW.L)raised its full-year trading expectations on Tuesday WmMorrison and Tesco (TSCO.L) lost 0.2 to 0.4 percent. Miners were also lower, with Anglo American (AAL.L), BHPBilliton (BLT.L), Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC.L) andKazakhmys (KAZ.L) falling 0.1 to 2.2 percent.

Investors got some relief from data showing euro zoneservices and manufacturing sectors contracted much less sharplythan expected in July [ID:nLO728431] Beverage firms were the biggest drag on the index, withDiageo (DGE.L) and SABMiller (SAB.L) retreating 0.7 percent and0.8 percent respectively seahawk tickets . Some analysts saidthat the situation may start to pick up from here . "Although these figures are slightly disappointing, theeconomy's rate of contraction is nevertheless easing and theBritish recession appears to be on the wane," said Tom Salmon,senior trader at ShortsandLongs . DOWNBEAT DATA However, FTSE's gains were capped by disappointing economicdata . The Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumersshowed consumer sentiment waned in July to the lowest readingsince April on growing pessimism on the economic outlook.[ID:nN24449821] In the UK, the second quarter GDP contraction was thebiggest annual decline on record.

BG Group (BG.L) andRoyal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) advanced 2 percent and 0.3 percent,respectively, while BP (BP.L) was almost flat seahawks . Energy majors were also up, with crude prices CLc1 rising0.4 percent to trade above $67 a barrel . If anything, it looks as if it wants toclimb higher." Banks were in demand, with Barclays (BARC.L), HSBC (HSBA.L),Lloyds (LLOY.L), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) and StandardChartered (STAN.L) rising between 0.2 and 3.3 percent . "The market is increasingly of the view that the recovery isin progress now . It is forgetting about the bad numbers that wesaw today in UK GDP and looking ahead to the recovery and theimprovement in earnings," Lenhoff said.