Maurice 'Morry' Taylor (L), chairman and chief executive of Titan International, Inc., is shown in this undated handout photograph. Taylor has delivered a crushing summary of how some outsiders view France's work ethic in a letter saying he would have to be stupid to take... 
 
 Maurice 'Morry' Taylor (L), chairman and chief executive of Titan International, Inc., is shown in this undated handout photograph. Taylor has delivered a crushing summary of how some outsiders view France's work ethic in a letter saying he would have to be stupid to take... 
 
 Employees stand at the entrance of the Goodyear tyres factory in Amiens, northern France, in this January 31, 2013 file photo. Maurice Taylor, the CEO of U.S. tyremaker Titan International delivered a crushing resume of how some outsiders view France's work ethic in a letter... 
 
 Employees stand at the entrance of the Goodyear tyres factory in Amiens, northern France, in this January 31, 2013 file photo. Maurice Taylor, the CEO of U.S. tyremaker Titan International delivered a crushing resume of how some outsiders view France's work ethic in a letter... 
 
 Maurice 'Morry' Taylor (L), chairman and chief executive of Titan International, Inc., is pictured working with an employee at Titan's bull wheel facility in Quincy, Illinois, in this undated handout photograph. Taylor has delivered a crushing summary of how some outsiders... 
 
 Maurice 'Morry' Taylor (L), chairman and chief executive of Titan International, Inc., is pictured working with an employee at Titan's bull wheel facility in Quincy, Illinois, in this undated handout photograph. Taylor has delivered a crushing summary of how some outsiders... 
 
 PARIS The CEO of a U.S. tire company has delivered a crushing 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. 
 
 Titan International's Maurice "Morry" Taylor, who goes by "The Grizz" for his bear-like no-nonsense style, 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 business daily Les Echos on its website on Wednesday and which the ministry confirmed was genuine. 
 
 "How stupid do you think we are?" he asked at one point. 
 
 "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 said. "You can keep the so-called workers." 
 
 As the leaked letter drew outrage in France, Montebourg penned a scathing response, spelling out the reasons why France routinely ranks as a leading destination for companies to invest, beating China and India in mid-2012. 
 
 "Can I remind you that Titan, the business you run, is 20 times smaller than Michelin, the French (tire) technology leader with international influence, and 35 times less profitable," Montebourg wrote, in a two-page letter in French. 
 
 "This just shows the extent to which Titan could have learned and gained, enormously, from a presence in France." 
 
 Montebourg's letter, a copy of which was sent to Reuters, said Taylor's comments, "as extremist as they are insulting", illustrated his ignorance of France. 
 
 Union leaders also reacted furiously. 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. 
 
 The vicious exchange made for another public knock to France's business image after verbal attacks last year by Montebourg on firms seeking to shut ailing industrial sites prompted international derision. 
 
 Combined with concern over plans for a 75-percent "millionaires' tax", Montebourg's antics drove London Mayor Boris Johnson to tell an international business audience that it seemed France was being run by left-wing revolutionaries. 
 
 Socialist President Francois Hollande may take some comfort in the view Taylor expressed of Washington: "The U.S. government is not much better than the French," he wrote, saying Western leaders were failing to halt state-subsidized Chinese exports. 
 
 TWO TOUGH-TALKERS 
 
 The row has pitted an outspoken former anti-globalization campaigner, the loose cannon of Hollande's government, against a right-winger who revels in provocation and tough-talking. 
 
 Proud of being "The Grizz" -- his group's logo features a cartoon bear and its website opens to the roar of a grizzly -- Taylor has clashed with unions before and once suggested that a U.S. judge was "smoking dope" after a ruling against his firm. 
 
 He 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. 
 
 At that time, he admitted to being "abrasive" in order to "get the job done": "The politicians, they all want you to like them," he told an interviewer. "I don't care if people like me." 
 
 To Montebourg, the author of "Kill All the Lawyers and Other Ways to Fix the Government" wrote: "You're a politician so you don't want to rock the boat ... France will lose its industrial business because its government is more government." 
 
 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. Montebourg told reporters earlier on Wednesday that he would put his answer in a letter. 
 
 In it, he noted the United States is the No. 1 investor in France with 4,200 U.S. subsidiaries employing nearly half a million people in the country. He said those firms appreciated French productivity and "savoir-faire" and warned that Paris would fight others which exploit cheap labor. 
 
 Montebourg has often lashed out at cheap imports of manufactured goods from low-wage countries such as China and last year told the boss of Indian steelmaker ArcelorMittal he was unwelcome in a spat over a shuttered plant in France. 
 
 Despite having per-head productivity levels that rank among the best in Europe, economists blame France's rigid hiring and firing laws for a long industrial decline that has dented exports. Many also fault the country's 35-hour work week for diminishing competitiveness with Germany. 
 
 Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co's Amiens Nord plant employs 1,250 people, who have been battling demands they work more shifts or accept layoffs. The site now faces closure. 
 
 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." 
 
 (Additional reporting by Christian Plumb and Elizabeth Pineau; Writing by Catherine Bremer; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Giles Elgood) ||||| Titan International Inc. Chairman Maurice Taylor has got French backs up with his comments that the country’s workers earn high wages and work short hours. 
 
 In a letter to French Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg declining to reconsider buying a tire plant in the country, he wrote that France can keep its “so-called workers.” Taylor, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1996, laid out why his company walked away and won’t re-examine buying a plant that Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., the largest U.S. tire- maker, is closing in France. 
 
 “I have visited the factory several times,” Taylor wrote. “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 the French union workers this to their faces. They told me that’s the French way!” 
 
 Montebourg said earlier this month he was dropping efforts to get Quincy, Illinois-based Titan to take over some of Goodyear’s operations in Amiens, in northern France. The move, which has put 1,173 jobs at risk, shows the challenge President Francois Hollande faces in improving French competitiveness as factory operators confront pressure from global markets. 
 
 Photographer: Philippe Huguen/AFP via Getty Images The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Amiens, France. Close The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Amiens, France. Close Open Photographer: Philippe Huguen/AFP via Getty Images The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Amiens, France. 
 
 Hollande is struggling to boost employment in an economy that’s teetering on the brink of recession as more than 3 million people look for work in France, the highest level of joblessness in 15 years. 
 
 “The workers of Goodyear would have considered themselves insulted had the author of the letter been someone credible,” the CGT union said in an e-mailed statement. 
 
 Montebourg Response 
 
 Krista Gray, an investor relations representative at Titan, didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment. Montebourg’s office confirmed it had received the letter. 
 
 In a letter to Taylor dated today and released to the press, Montebourg said, “your comments that are as extremist as they are insulting testify to your perfect ignorance of our country, La France, and its strengths.” 
 
 In the two-page letter evoking La Fayette, the American landing in Normandy that “delivered us from the Nazis in 1944” and “an admiration” for the policies of President Barack Obama, Montebourg sought to show the close ties between France and the U.S. 
 
 He pointed out that Titan could have “learned and gained a lot from a presence in France,” noting that “the company you manage is 20 times smaller than Michelin, the genuinely international French leader, and 35 times less profitable.” 
 
 Goodyear Plan 
 
 Goodyear said Jan. 31 it will close its main French plant and cut its workforce in the country by 39 percent amid labor disputes and plunging auto demand in Europe. 
 
 “Goodyear tried for over four years to save part of the Amiens jobs that are some of the highest paid but the French unions and the French government did nothing but talk,” Taylor wrote, according to the letter published today by Les Echos. 
 
 In December 2011, Titan dropped a two-year-old plan to buy the factory’s farm-tire operations, citing union opposition. 
 
 The CGT union said in its statement that “Titan had never really intended to take over the site and never had an industrial project for the plant.” It said workers suspected all along that Titan considered buying the farm-tire business on condition the passenger-vehicle tires operation was shut down. 
 
 Presidential Candidate 
 
 Taylor, who goes by “Morry,” ran for President in 1996 on the Republican ticket using the slogan “A doer, not a talker,” according to his blog called “grizztalk.” Among recommendations he’s made to President Obama include shutting the Department of Education and dropping sick pay for government employees, according to the company’s website. 
 
 He didn’t mince his words when he told Montebourg why Titan wouldn’t consider reviving its bid for the French operations. 
 
 “Sir, your letter says you want Titan to start a discussion,” he wrote. “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 French farmer wants cheap tires. He does not care if the tires come from India or China and these governments are subsidizing them. Your government doesn’t care either. ‘We’re French!”’ 
 
 To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Deen in Paris at markdeen@bloomberg.net 
 
 To contact the editor responsible for this story: Vidya Root at vroot@bloomberg.net; Craig Stirling at cstirling1@bloomberg.net
– 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."