Tire baron sparks diplomatic row with comments about French work ethic

By Julian Pecquet - 02/20/13 04:06 PM ET

A former Republican presidential candidate has sparked a diplomatic row with France after slamming the French work ethic.

Maurice “Morry” Taylor, the president and CEO of tire-maker Titan International and a 1996 presidential candidate, made the disparaging remarks in a personal letter to French productivity minister Arnaud Montebourg, a member of the Socialist Party. The letter explains why Taylor had rejected a French offer to take over a struggling Goodyear plant in northern France after failing to negotiate new terms with the workers' union.

“I have visited that factory a couple of times,” Taylor wrote in a letter obtained by French business newspaper Les Echos. “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 this to the French union workers to their faces. They told me that's the French way!”

Taylor goes on to say he'd prefer to buy tire-makers in India and China and flood the French market with their cheap tires.

“Sir, letter states that you want to start a discussion,” he wrote. “How stupid do you think we are?”

The letter drew an indignant response from Montebourg, who condemned Taylor's “extremist” and “insulting” words.

In the letter, Montebourg derides Titan's small market share and low profitability compared to French tire giant Michelin, and warns Taylor that European Union members are banding together to reject dumped tires and other products from low-wage countries. He then goes on to celebrate the “intense and passionate friendship” between France and the United States — from LaFayette to Normandy — before praising the Obama administration's own industrial policy.

“I must tell you how much the French government admires the policies put in place by President Obama,” Montebourg writes in French. “As minister in charge of industrial production, I am particularly conscious of his efforts to keep manufacturing jobs from going overseas and to invest locally. In fact, it so happens that our own policies share some kinship with those inspired by your own president.”