Katy Barnato , CNBC.com –

US CEO to France: You can keep your ‘so-called workers’

The head of U.S. tire maker Titan launched a vitriolic attack on French productivity after the country’s socialist government suggested he buy a tire factory in the north of France.

“How stupid do you think we are?” wrote Maurice Taylor, in a letter to French Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg, obtained by French business newspaper Les Echos on Wednesday.

Montebourg had asked the U.S. mogul to take over a Goodyear tire factory that is due to close.

“I have visited that factory a couple of times. 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 hours,” he wrote.

“I told this to the French union workers to their faces. They told me that’s the French way!”

Keep on the same path and you’ll find, in America, the same robust productivity as France.

A three hour work day.