US Titan CEO Maurice Taylor blasts work habits in France in letter to French industry minister

The US chief executive of a tire company didn’t pull any punches when describing France’s work ethic – or lack of.

Titan International CEO Maurice Taylor told the French government he would be “stupid” to invest in a country where workers get high pay for performing little work, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Taylor, whose nickname is “The Grizz,” had been considering taking over an ailing tire plant in northern France.

But in a letter to French Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg – published by French newspaper Les Echos on its website and confirmed by the ministry as genuine – Taylor said France could keep it’s “so-called workers.”

“I have visited the factory several times,” Taylor wrote in the Feb. 8 letter, Bloomberg reported.

“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. I told the French union workers this to their faces. They told me that’s the French way!”

According to Reuters, Taylor said his company would buy “a Chinese tire company or an Indian one, pay less than one Euro per hour wage and ship all the tires France needs.”

"You can keep the so-called workers," he told Montebourg.