American Executive Lashes Out at French Unions, Causing Uproar

[cali]

“How stupid do you think we are?”

With those choice words, and several more similar in tone, the chief executive of an American tire company touched off a furor in France on Wednesday as he responded to a government plea to take over a recently closed Goodyear factory in northern France.

“I have visited the factory a couple of times,” Maurice Taylor Jr., the head of Titan International, wrote to the country’s industry minister, Arnaud Montebourg, in a letter published in French newspapers on Wednesday. “The French work force gets paid high wages but works only three hours. They have one hour for their breaks and lunch, talk for three and work for three.“

“I told this to the French unions to their faces and they told me, ‘That’s the French way!’ ” added Mr. Taylor, a swaggering businessman who is nicknamed “the Grizz” by Wall Street analysts for his abrasive negotiating style.

<snip>

He said his company would seek to produce cheaper tires in India or China, and sell them back to the French. He predicted that Michelin, the French tiremaker, would not be able to compete with lower prices and would have to halt production in France within five years.

<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/21/business/american-executive-lashes-out-at-french-unions-touching-off-uproar.html

[Taverner]

1. Companies should be afraid of the unions, not vice versa

[Notafraidtoo]

2. LOL

"The Grizz" doesn't have a chance in hell after that rant,unlike here the french protect their workers and industry from predators like Taylor its how they are able to keep their high standard of living and they unlike us are smart enough to know it.

[Aristus]

3. I don't believe for a second that someone told him" That is the French way!"

I'm calling bullshit. What he undoubtedly was told was: "French workforce productivity is higher than American productivity, Yanqui!"