Hearing on Delphi pensions planned

Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will be in area Nov. 14.

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By Thomas Gnau, Staff Writer Updated 11:26 PM Tuesday, October 18, 2011

DAYTON — Stripping Delphi salaried retirees of their full pensions and retiree health benefits may have been illegal, and it’s up to Congress to gather as much information as possible on what happened, U.S. Rep. Mike Turner said Tuesday.

The House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hold a field hearing to explore the matter Nov. 14 in Dayton, Turner said. A location, time and list of witnesses will be settled on later, his staff said.

“We don’t understand why we were singled out for uniquely harsh treatment,” said Washington Twp. resident Tom Rose, a General Motors employee for 30 years and a Delphi employee for nine.

In 2009, in the final year of its four-year stay in bankruptcy protection, Delphi ended health and life insurance benefits for salaried retirees and turned pension obligations to the federally backed Pension and Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC).

That meant pension cuts of 30 to 70 percent for salaried retirees, including about 700 in the Dayton area. Meanwhile, union pensions have remained whole.

All this happened as the federal government was assisting GM, Delphi’s largest customer, in its own bankruptcy.

Asked if a legislative solution could be found for salaried retirees, Turner, R-Centerville, said the Obama administration “certainly has the authority to step forward and fix it.”

“How can it be legal for the government to pick winners and losers?” asked Mary Miller, of Washington Twp., who worked for GM for 22 years and Delphi for eight years.

The salaried retirees do not begrudge union retirees their benefits. “They earned it; they deserve it — and so do we,” Rose said.

But they point to an analysis that said Delphi’s pension was 86 percent funded, meaning it did not have to be turned over to the PBGC, in their view.

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