Executive Hostage Taking
Labor strikes have long been associated with violence, but a new variation on that threat has been flaring up around the world: executive hostage taking.
In France, South Africa, and other countries, striking workers have taken to holding supervisors and top executives hostage to force them to meet union demands. Even more shocking, law enforcement agencies do not always view such hostage taking as a crime, leaving victimized companies and executives to fend for themselves. Fortunately, with careful contingency planning and screened, trained security forces, security managers in any country can stop such incidents from happening and thereby help keep the hostage-taking trend from spreading.
Security managers can best protect top corporate staff against labor violence by taking the matter into their own hands—specifically, by learning lessons from recent attacks, performing detailed strike security planning, and, when appropriate, working with an experienced strike security firm.
See Executive Hostage Taking, by Martin B. Herman, president and CEO Special Response Corporation.
