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“Keep your so-called workers,” U.S. boss tells France
YAHOO NEWS
PARIS (Reuters) – The CEO of a U.S. tire maker has delivered a crushing summary of how some outsiders view France’s work ethic in a letter saying he would have to be stupid to take over a factory whose staff only put in three hours work a day.
Titan International’s Maurice “Morry” Taylor, who goes by “The Grizz” for his bear-like no-nonsense style, told the left-wing French industry minister in a letter published by Paris media that he had no interest in buying a doomed plant.
“The French workforce gets paid high wages but works only three hours. They get one hour for breaks and lunch, talk for three and work for three,” Taylor wrote on February 8 in the letter in English addressed to the minister, Arnaud Montebourg.
“I told this to the French union workers to their faces. They told me that’s the French way!” Taylor added in the letter, which was posted by business daily Les Echos on its website on Wednesday and which the ministry confirmed was genuine.
“How stupid do you think we are?” he asked at one point.
“Titan is going to buy a Chinese tire company or an Indian one, pay less than one Euro per hour wage and ship all the tires France needs,” he said. “You can keep the so-called workers.”
Socialist President Francois Hollande might take some comfort in Taylor’s view of Washington: “The U.S. government is not much better than the French,” he said, complaining Western leaders were failing to halt state-subsidized Chinese exports.
Taylor has built Illinois-based Titan over 23 years into a global brand in tires for tractors and other off-road machinery. Proud of being “The Grizz” – his group’s logo features a cartoon bear and its website opens to the roar of a grizzly – Taylor has clashed with unions before and ran for the White House in the 1996 Republican primary, campaigning on a pro-business ticket.
At that time, he admitted to being “abrasive” in order to “get the job done”: “The politicians, they all want you to like them,” he told an interviewer. “I don’t care if people like me.”
To Montebourg, the author of “Kill All the Lawyers and Other Ways to Fix the Government” wrote: “You’re a politician so you don’t want to rock the boat … France will lose its industrial business because its government is more government.”
old_oaks
February 20th, 2013
And thus the reason you never buy frog tires from Michelin, no, they aren’t made in Michigan.
norman einstein
February 20th, 2013
From the Comments:
- Stewie’s Revenge
In Heaven:
The cooks are French
The policemen are English
The mechanics are German
The lovers are Italian
The bankers are Swiss
In Hell:
The cooks are English
The policemen are German
The mechanics are French
The lovers are Swiss
The bankers are Italian
Mary Jane Anklestraps
February 20th, 2013
So THAT’S where the unions in this country get their ideas from. lol.
Moe Tom
February 20th, 2013
Good for “The Grizz.” F*k the Frogs.
GomeznSA
February 20th, 2013
Weellll – I suppose that if they only ‘work’ for 3 hours then they are only expecting to get paid for those 3 hours – or not………….
J Frank Parnell
February 20th, 2013
France is Obamugabe’s model.
majorityofone
February 20th, 2013
I remember Morry Taylor running for President. I heard an interview where they asked him about the 2nd Amendment. His answer was something like “The 2nd Amendment says arms, not guns. If you want a tank, you should be able to have one.”
Glad to hear he’s still telling it like it is
Stranded in Sonoma
February 21st, 2013
@norman — I heard the story this way.
Heaven is:
An American job
A British house
A Chinese cook
A Japanese wife
Hell is:
A Chinese job
A Japanese house
A British cook
An American wife
Ladies of IOTW — DO NOT SHOOT THE MESSENGER! I don’t adhere to that, it’s just the way I heard it about 15 years ago.
Tim
February 21st, 2013
I think it’s unfair to expect the delicate little froggies to work 3 hrs/day.
The French should pay them for … well, being French!