U.S. CEO ridicules French for 'three-hour' work day
PARIS (AP) - A straight-talking U.S. businessman and a European socialist government were never likely to become the firmest of friends, but a letter from Maurice Taylor, CEO of tire-maker Titan International, blasting the French work-ethic has ruffled France's feathers.
Taylor, who is nicknamed "The Grizz", wrote the no-holds-barred letter to French Industrial Renewal Minister Arnaud Montebourg to explain why his company wouldn't buy part of an ailing Goodyear factory in Amiens. The ministry confirmed the letter as authentic, but attempts to obtain comment from Titan have been unsuccessful.
"I have visited the factory a couple of times," the letter date Feb. 8 reads, according to a copy published Wednesday in Les Echos newspaper.
"The French workforce gets paid high wages but only work for three hours. They get one hour for breaks and lunch, talk for three and work for three. I told this to the French union workers to their faces. They told me that's the French way!"
The Industrial Renewal Ministry had approached Titan to start discussions on buying up part of the Goodyear factory.
Taylor's response in the letter was abrupt, to say the least. "How stupid do you think we are?"
"Titan is the one with the money and the talent to produce tires. What does the crazy union have? It has the French government."
The letter, which refers to French employees as "so-called workers" has prompted a media backlash against Taylor, and even caused the French government to defend itself.
In a written reply Wednesday, a copy of which was sent to The Associated Press, Montebourg tells Taylor "your words, as extremist as they are insulting, show a perfect ignorance of our country."
"Can I remind you that Titan, the company you head is 20 times smaller than Michelin, the French technology leader with a global reach, and 35 times more profitable? That shows the extent that Titan could have learnt and gained enormously from a French base," Montebourg goes on.
"I would like to remind Mr. Taylor that France remains the number 1. European destination from American investors," said French government spokeperson Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, also stepping in.
"And it's likely there are very good reasons for that."
Figures from the Organization for the Economic Co-operation and Development show that France is riding high in the top ten of the most productive European countries. However, analysts and politicians across Europe are becoming increasingly concerned the France, Europe's second-largest economy after Germany, is rapidly losing its competiveness. The exchange of letters has been played out on a broader landscape of rising unemployment and fears that French industry will fall further behind as its economy slumps.
Titan International plays on the hard reputation of its CEO, who also made an attempt to run for U.S. President in 1996 for the Republicans.
The company's website features a biography explaining that the nickname comes from his "tough negotiating style" in Washington as well as a logo and sound of a roaring grizzly bear wearing shades.
Late Wednesday, the company's website appeared to have been hacked. It bore the message "You have been hacked" over a photo of loops of tangled barbed wire, and featured obscene taunts against Taylor.
Taylor, who is nicknamed "The Grizz", wrote the no-holds-barred letter to French Industrial Renewal Minister Arnaud Montebourg to explain why his company wouldn't buy part of an ailing Goodyear factory in Amiens. The ministry confirmed the letter as authentic, but attempts to obtain comment from Titan have been unsuccessful.
"I have visited the factory a couple of times," the letter date Feb. 8 reads, according to a copy published Wednesday in Les Echos newspaper.
"The French workforce gets paid high wages but only work for three hours. They get one hour for breaks and lunch, talk for three and work for three. I told this to the French union workers to their faces. They told me that's the French way!"
The Industrial Renewal Ministry had approached Titan to start discussions on buying up part of the Goodyear factory.
Taylor's response in the letter was abrupt, to say the least. "How stupid do you think we are?"
"Titan is the one with the money and the talent to produce tires. What does the crazy union have? It has the French government."
The letter, which refers to French employees as "so-called workers" has prompted a media backlash against Taylor, and even caused the French government to defend itself.
In a written reply Wednesday, a copy of which was sent to The Associated Press, Montebourg tells Taylor "your words, as extremist as they are insulting, show a perfect ignorance of our country."
"Can I remind you that Titan, the company you head is 20 times smaller than Michelin, the French technology leader with a global reach, and 35 times more profitable? That shows the extent that Titan could have learnt and gained enormously from a French base," Montebourg goes on.
"I would like to remind Mr. Taylor that France remains the number 1. European destination from American investors," said French government spokeperson Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, also stepping in.
"And it's likely there are very good reasons for that."
Figures from the Organization for the Economic Co-operation and Development show that France is riding high in the top ten of the most productive European countries. However, analysts and politicians across Europe are becoming increasingly concerned the France, Europe's second-largest economy after Germany, is rapidly losing its competiveness. The exchange of letters has been played out on a broader landscape of rising unemployment and fears that French industry will fall further behind as its economy slumps.
Titan International plays on the hard reputation of its CEO, who also made an attempt to run for U.S. President in 1996 for the Republicans.
The company's website features a biography explaining that the nickname comes from his "tough negotiating style" in Washington as well as a logo and sound of a roaring grizzly bear wearing shades.
Late Wednesday, the company's website appeared to have been hacked. It bore the message "You have been hacked" over a photo of loops of tangled barbed wire, and featured obscene taunts against Taylor.
The Boeing aircraft were some of the best until the stockholders and Boeing management got greedy.  Their products deteriorated  when they outsourced their work to not only foreign countries, but to scab outfits here in the United States.  Some of these were in the Seattle area.  It's one thing to hire workers and pay them less than the union workers, but to pay them almost minimum wages and you will get what you pay for.  Crappy and unsafe products.  It tells us that Boeing cares more about money than they do the people flying in their airplanes.
@Shadow So, you're blaming it on the scabs, or the stockholders? I like how the other guy tries to assert that only union employees know how to build airplanes, and anybody who sees it otherwise is a "c..."  This is the kind of class and reason you're going to find among the average entitlement-mentality Union-First America-Next mob of mediocrity that gets too comfortable with their power.
Airbus, it turns out, makes great airplanes too. And they're "outsourced" outside of American labor.
Verses the "This is the kind of class and reason you're going to find among the average entitlement-mentality corporate-First- America-Next mob mediocrity"
Like...
"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 wrote. "You can keep the so-called workers. Titan has no interest in the Amiens North factory."
You could substitute "amiens" with "American" with this schmuck ! And you . play. sides with this economy destrying ceo kind of mentality....again why is our economy sucking ? Oh ya , cause of the worker...not the capitolist...You ARE ignorant !
I didn't say everyone was a C... just you. What I left out was an "ignorant misinformed C..."
You want to see a photo of a real worker, who would lay every SOB in this forum to shame?Â
http://life.tumblr.com/post/39936085712/a-welder-at-a-boat-and-sub-building-yard-adjusts
Which would you say was a better-built product? The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses built by non-unionized women, or the 787s that are grounded because of poor worksmanship while yet another Boeing union seizes the opportunity to try to go on strike? The worker in the photo knows the answer.Â
http://www.iamawlodge1426.org/hisupdate38.htm   Boeing union 1935 I.A.M. Â
You haven't got a clue about Boeing moron. The problem with the 787 is forign makers 85% of that aircraft is made in 27 differant countries and yes it is a piece of s... because Boeing thought it would be better to use non-union workers instead of 93 years of experiance because of cost.Boeing was unionized back during WW2 and that woman did make a lot of the planes and just who do you think taught them how to, men did. You really are a dumb c....
@Ghetto Baby LOL!
A dumb what?Â
I wouldn't use that discriptor, I would you "ignorant" just because you use an instance where we were in a WORLD WAR, dimwit. As for your "the way it was" nostalgia, how about if the village idiot did as FDR did when we went to war ?
Federal tax policy was highly contentious during the war, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt battling a conservative Congress. However, both sides agreed on the need for high taxes (along with heavy borrowing) to pay for the war: top marginal tax rates ranged from 81%-94% for the duration of the war, and the income level subject to the highest rate was lowered from $5,000,000 to $200,000.
Ya we'll just take the part of history that YOU want...again, blissfully ignorant !
Amazing how many folks here are taking the 3 hour comment at face value. Â After all, how can it take three hours to drop a perfectly good gun on the ground and raise your hands?
Simpletons do love their stereotypes.
@Festivus "Beignet" is the French word for "doughnut," and the pastries are similar in function, but the French don't shoot holes in the center of theirs.
"...the company you head is 20 times smaller than Michelin,..." Uh, Frenchie, it ain't possible that Titan (or any other company) is "20 times smaller." If it were ONE time smaller, its size would be zero. Of course, maybe things are different over there.
@Mechanic No....1/20th the size NOT zero
@Mechanic Boo boo, i think you divide by 20.
The ugly american strikes again. France, comparable per capita income, longer life expectancy, higher literacy rate, lower retirement age, better food. Maybe we could learn something instead of hurling insults.
@dynamited77Â Â And I suppose in Athens the men all have long curly beards and wear flowing white robes.
A friend of mine's son was murdered in a back alley in France the summer before last while he was there as an exchange student. People who think that France doesn't have its own issues right now have been reading too many glossy tourist books. France is struggling.
Who said france wasn't struggling AND Â the US isn't struggling ? again blissfully thinking ????
No wonder the French economy can't keep up with the rest of Europe!
Ah, their economy is second only to germany and there economy is  ranked 9th in the world ! They also have 69 of the top 500 corporations oh and In 2010, credit suise's global wealth report ranked france the wealthiest european country with 280K  millionaires, and the world's 4th wealthiestnation in aggregate household wealth.Â
That may well change with the recent introduction of the extremely high income tax planned for France by the Socialists!
Your guess is as good as mine. There are too many variables like political agendas, employment figures that seem to change with the time of day, a stock market that is hyper-sensitive to anything and everything, gas prices, etc. Need I go on? All we can do is continue muddling through until each of us personally feels either richer or poorer.
And our economy ??
"Can I remind you that Titan, the company you head is 20 times smaller than Michelin, the French technology leader with a global reach, and 35 times more profitable? That shows the extent that Titan could have learnt and gained enormously from a French base," Montebourg goes on.
I think he may have made the best point in his own statement...the American company is 20 times smaller and 35 times more profitable. I'm guessing he didn't mean to say that, but perhaps he did. Not to mention it's only a single factory in France that they are buying...comparing that to all of Goodyear is just ignorant.
@JimmyWally English my friend....the operative comma is behind "michelin...therefore you carry the next comment "and 35 times more profitable" into the subject "michelin"....perhaps the comma was not needed between "reach" and "and" but I have had english teachers that use comma before "and" and some that don't !
So it was worded correctly....michelin is 35 times more profitable
@sargerator @JimmyWally Then why is France trying to sell it to the Americans?!
You also missed the point that nothing can be "20 times smaller" than something else. At one time smaller, it ceases to exist. I suppose you could introduce the concept of negative size, though. So, say Michelin has a billion dollars a year in sales. Then Titan would have to have minus nineteen billion a year in sales. I beleive even a French minister can't make sense of that. Not even Enron kept books like that..
@Mechanic ONE buck is 20 times smaller than 20 bucks.
The supply/demand/competetion thing works pretty well when government and unions stay out of the way.
Some leaders seem to think government/unions are the way to go, and a lot of voters bought it.
@oldcouvguy yes, by removing regulation, environmental concerns, workers rights, workplace safety, and allow businesses to do whatever they like to whom ever they like whenever they like, everything will be perfect, right? Businesses will treat their employees with the utmost respect just like they did before unions when workplace atalities were insanely high and workers made barely enough to not die in the streets.
@Ramsesthegreat You're not entirely correct but I would like to point out that Apple, Microsoft, Nike and Intel employees, and the white-collar engineers and managers at places like HP and Oracle, are not union. So...  ?
The problem is that if you've been raised under the union umbrella, you don't get to see my college-dropout ex-boss working at his home office in Cedar Mill making $100,000 at the age of 32, probably with a bottle of Guinness or a bowl of weed next to him, the bastage. Excellent programmer and admin, though. You hear union propaganda about workplace casualties and five-day work-weeks.
Small business owners are allegedly the backbone of America, but, we're not unionized. We don't get paid vacations or medical insurance, or labor representation, and if we fail, we're not fired, we're ruined.
The union party line is BS. My daughter's teacher isn't union, she's a nun, but, the first- and second-graders are still learning Spanish, multiplication, parts of a sentence, they've already studied Ancient Egypt and are doing Greece now, they're planting gardens, cooking, and learning about trilobites and whatever the Carboniferous Period was. No union required.
People who are willing to stand on their own and succeed will never have union protection, which is simply the mediocrity of the masses throwing its collective weight around.
" My daughter's teacher isn't union, she's a nun" you do knopw nuns take a "vow of poverty" right ? Sheeeze maybe thats why they don't advocate for higher pay...you think ?
"union protection, which is simply the mediocrity of the masses throwing its collective weight around. "
What, versus capitol throwing it's weight around ? Again, this schmuck ceo claims he's just going to move his tire production to china or india where he can take advantage of a poor nations "slave" labor and pay them to barely survive while he makes millions/
Now keep in mind he could produce a fine product here in the US or France for that matter AND still make a hefty income for himself but , oh no, he wants even more, I call that GREED, what is it they call that...hmmm.. one of the original deadly sins right ? So you're all for that hey ?
Â
@RamsesthegreatÂ
I don't disagree with you, I am just saying that that the government is just getting too big and taking incentive out of our nature, and making more freeloaders.
I have found no evidence beyond a national trend his housing cost-building that differs in the DC area so don't understand your argument.....again, look at my link...gov. expansion = republiCON rule....gov. shrinks = dem rule. Can't get more direct thatn that !
@sargerator @oldcouvguy @RamsesthegreatÂ
It has grown too much, note housing boom in DC, and I can't blame either party.
By the way I have been a Dem all my life, now I would be ashamed to claim to be either Dem or Repub, just want to get back to being an American.
@oldcouvguy @Ramsesthegreat You do know the government has shrank since 2008 AND government grew under gw by huge amounts in his first 4 years. Also government grew under raygun and dropped under clinton...funny hey, repubs always say want smaller gov and they elect a repub and he expands the federal government....people don't learn !
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/05/04/business/economy/off-the-charts-shrinking-government.html
@oldcouvguy I could be because I can vote for governments and unions and owning stock does not necessarily give me a vote on how the company is run.
@dynamited77Â @oldcouvguyÂ
I understand your point on stocks, but if I don't like the way a government run program is "tough".
If it's a non government company I can go to the competition.
Yep, the French are really doing it right. Too bad they were hoping that someone stupid would by their "ailing tire plant". If it was such a money maker don't you think a French businessman would have snapped that sucker up by now? I guess all the French businessman/women must live somewherre else now because the high taxes have chased them away.
Hmm I was in France last year and the locals said it could take you 8 months just to get your cable turned on/off or do anything that would take 2 days here. So seems to me the French leader is the one showing a perfect ignorance of hist country not the tire guy.
@FreedomRocks On the other hand, a doctor will come to your home when you're sick, all part of your national health care system. Â
@Festivus @FreedomRocks Ya and according to people I know visiting who have used it you will only get a bill for about $60 bucks instead of the $2500 ER visit here.
Certainly there are pluses and minuses to every system and way of life...
I like my things and am willing to work hard to get them so I would not want to be in a system were that was not possible and working hard gained you nothing over hardly working.
 If your comfortable living in a system where everyone seems to work as little as possible. Then you have to be comfortable having it take 8 months to get simple services turned on/off.
Although dealing with our government is often not a speedy process either in a lot of cases. One could make a connection there between why things are so slow in France if they truly are not working very hard and why for many government related things here it is very slow.
Sorry for the rambling time for some more coffee...
@FreedomRocks How's gilligan, professor ?
@sargerator @FreedomRocks Is that really the most intelligent comeback you can offer today? Sad but I think they have extra brains on loan at OHSU maybe you can pick one up for some extra horse power...
@FreedomRocks @sargerator It really was in all likelihood the most intelligent comeback he could offer. You're battling wits with the unarmed.
@FreedomRocks @sargerator ya right , coming from you
@sargerator So your defense for a totally dumb ass comment is to now call me a liar? Time to man up Sarg or maybe stick to commenting on things you actually know something about.
@FreedomRocks @sargerator Tired of your BS stories....Now call me mr rocket scientist !
I think PGE workers are on the french system. Â
@trololol One thing I can tell you is that you want to avoid using the gvt controlled utilities....almost impossible to get anything done.
@deejm2112 @trololol Ya, like the ELECTRIC GRID or WATER SUPPLY or SANITARY SYSTEM or HIWAYS , good luck with your "off the grid" idea
@deejm2112 @sargerator @trololol Telecom is a market-driven abortion that--having spent half a career in the industry on the data side--is all about sales guys and marketing droids selling technology that the industry can't realistically provide. (Unlimited data, for example.)Â
The way it works is that the marketing propellorheads decide what they're going to sell and how much, and the whole, entire company from customer service to the network admins and engineers have to figure out how to make something appear to be working which is most likely still technologically impossible.
I can't lie about your chances, but, you have my sympathies.
@deejm2112 @sargerator @trololol I'm assuming (ya I know, don't assume because....) your talking about scheduling install-repairs. That has nothing to do with gov. regs and everything to do with low wage techs and the lack of them. I've seen the comcast guys out working till late at nite, they are all contract work and get piece work pay which isn't much therefore not many go into the biz therefore bad service...nothing to do with regs, everything to do with maximized profits !
@sargerator @deejm2112 @trololol My experience is with telecom, it takes them a VERY long time to get something done.