US CEO Tells France to Keep Its 'So-Called Workers'

A US tire company boss has no interest in reconsidering his decision not to buy a French Goodyear factory that's set to close—and he's made his reasons perfectly clear. "You can keep the so-called workers," Maurice "The Grizz" Taylor of Titan International wrote to France's industry minister, per Reuters. Despite high pay, French workers do just three hours of work per day, Taylor argued. "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," he noted. "They told me that’s the French way!" Industry minister Arnaud Montebourg had been hoping Titan might buy the Amiens factory, which employs about 1,200, Bloomberg reports. "Sir, your letter says you want Titan to start a discussion," wrote Taylor, a 1996 Republican presidential candidate who has, among other things, urged an end to sick pay for government workers. "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." (More France stories.)