Thursday, February 26, 2009
By Don Shilling
Salaried retirees will appeal a ruling that takes away their health and life benefits.
Delphi salaried retirees are continuing to fight for their health-care benefits even though a judge has ruled against them.
The Delphi Salaried Retirees Association is planning to appeal the ruling and is forming a committee to look for some retirees that may be able to keep their benefits.
Judge Robert Drain of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York on Tuesday approved Delphi’s request to stop paying health care and life-insurance benefits to salaried retirees April 1. Judge Drain, however, said the retirees can form a committee to investigate if certain retirees, such as those who were on disability before their retirement, have the right to negotiate benefit cuts with the company.
The committee must show documents that verify workers had vested benefits in place when they retired, said Milton Beach, a Delphi retiree in Kokomo, Ind., and spokesman for the association.
He said this will be difficult because at some point, Delphi and its former parent, General Motors Corp., began inserting language into benefit statements that they reserved the right to modify or terminate benefits.
Beach said he wasn’t sure how many of Delphi’s 15,000 salaried retirees might qualify under the exemption. Plus, he added that the committee doesn’t have much time to help people because it must present its findings at a March 11 hearing.
The association has registered 2,500 retirees at its Web site, www.delphisalariedretirees.org. Beach encouraged retirees to register so the organizers can provide them with information and assistance.
Beach said the association’s San Francisco law firm is researching the law as it plans an appeal of Judge Drain’s ruling.
“I’m certainly disappointed with the judge’s ruling. We don’t think the court gave us adequate consideration,” Beach said.
The auto-parts supplier notified retirees Feb. 5 that it was canceling the benefits. Objections had to be filed with the court by Feb. 17, and the retirees had not yet created an association.
Judge Drain ruled that Delphi has the right to terminate benefits, and the cuts are justified because of the company’s financial troubles. The retirees had asked the judge to use a section of bankruptcy law that calls for the creation of a committee to negotiate benefit changes.
A local retiree, Janet Jackson, 59, of Boardman, said she doesn’t have a good way of making up the benefits she is losing.
Buying insurance through Delphi would take up half of her $2,800-a-month pension. A former nurse for Delphi, Jackson now works one or two days a week at a local non-profit agency.
“I’m still kind of in a daze. I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said.
Delphi is the parent of Delphi Packard Electric, which has several plants in the area.
Delphi has been operating under bankruptcy court protection since 2005 and has been unable to secure financing to emerge as an independent company. GM has said it is considering taking back some unnamed Delphi plants to ensure the supply of critical parts.
Steve Miller, Delphi executive chairman, said in court Tuesday that those talks are not complete and a deal is not certain.
shilling@vindy.com