France sends mediator to Michelin plant dispute

STRASBOURG, France, Feb 16 (Reuters) - A French state mediator held talks with unions on Saturday to ease tensions at a Michelin (MICP.PA) plant where staff have locked two managers in an office in protest at the site's closure.

The French tyre giant has said it plans to shut the production plant in the eastern French town of Toul at a cost of around 130 million euros ($190.9 million).

Talks between management and staff on compensation for the factory's roughly 800 staff have broken down, prompting the lock-in, which began on Thursday, and Economy Minister Christine Lagarde's appointment of a mediator on Saturday.

Union representatives said they spoke to the government mediator, a local official in charge of employment, for more than an hour on Saturday but there was no breakthrough.

"It was a first contact to discuss our demands and the conditions on which we will resume negotiations," CGT union representative Pierre Kovalski said.

Michelin seemed to be demanding that its two managers be released as a precondition for talks, he said.

Unions want Michelin to substantially increase payoffs for workers made redundant, pay more to those transferred elsewhere and improve measures to assist workers aged 55 and over.

"Christine Lagarde is following the evolution at the Kleber factory in Toul extremely closely," Lagarde's office said in a statement earlier on Saturday, in which it said Lagarde had suggested that the mediator step in.

"She has asked her staff to put everything in place to restore social dialogue," it said. (Reporting by Marine Jobert; writing by Francois Murphy in Paris, editing by Mike Peacock)