Taylor Opines On The French Way

The CEO of Titan International’s Maurice “Morry” Taylor, has delivered a rather blunt and to the point 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. Taylor told France’s left-wing 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 LesEchos.fr.

“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,” Taylor said. “You can keep the so-called workers.”

Taylor’s letter was a response to Paris having approached Titan as a possible buyer of U.S. group Goodyear’s Amiens Nord factory in northern France.

Talks last year with Titan over a possible rescue fell down after a failure to reach a deal with unions on voluntary redundancies. Taylor accused France of being at fault. “Titan is the one with the money and the talent to produce tires. What does the crazy union have? It has the French government.”

Union leaders reacted furiously to Taylor’s comments. CGT official Mickael Wamen said Taylor belonged more “in an asylum” than in the boardroom of a multinational and noted his views were based on a visit to a troubled plant whose operations had been cut back.

Taylor built up Illinois-based Titan over 23 years into a global brand in tires for tractors and other off-road machinery and ran for the White House in the 1996 Republican primary, campaigning on a pro-business ticket.

Titan International, Supplier Member since 1958; titan-intl.com.