Titan Boss, French ‘Workers’ Talk for 3 Hours, Work for 3 and Eat for (!) I.

PARIS, Feb 20 (Reuters) – The CEO of a U.S. tyre 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 Taylor, nicknamed “The Grizz” for his negotiating style, told the left-wing French industry minister in a letter published by media on Wednesday that he had no interest in rescuing a plant set for closure.

“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 Feb. 8 in the letter in English 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 and which the ministry confirmed was genuine.

“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.”

I think it would be fair to say that these comments have not gone down well in France.

l’Humanité leads with,

“Le PDG de Titan insulte les ouvriers de Goodyear dans un courrier à Montebourg”.

Imagine, having breaks from chatting and lazing around for an hour a day!