Fiat stands for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino, or the Italian auto factory in Turin. But Fiat chief Sergio Marchionne has infuriated unions here by saying that Italy is actually a drag on the carmaker.

Marchionne, also the head of Chrysler, told a program on Italian state broadcaster RAI that the company was expected to make more that 2 billion euros this year (about $3.8 billion) “but that not a single euro of those 2 billion is made in Italy.”

Union officials attacked Marchionne for his blunt comments, saying that he was humiliating Italian workers, and a government minister reminded the Fiat chief that he is running an Italian company, after all.

But Marchionne, who was born in Italy and grew up in Canada, is not falling for any feel-good patriotism.

“If we took the Italian part out, we would make more money,” he said. “You can’t continue to run losing operations forever.”