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Valley GM retirees wait, worry
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UAW 1112 shop chairman Bob Marstellar passes out information to GM/UAW retiree Larry Ayers of Austintown outside Metroplex Hotel in Liberty Tuesday. More than 1,500 retirees attended the meeting to find out details of health care plan.
By Don Shilling
Retirees hope the new GM succeeds so they can keep their remaining benefits.
LIBERTY — Many General Motors retirees accept benefit cuts as necessary but worry about what they will give up next.
“This is just the start,” said Roger Kuhn, 59, of Leavittsburg.
Kuhn, who retired from the Lordstown complex eight years ago, said he expects he will soon be paying for half of the cost of his health-care premiums. Retirees under 65 now pay about $23 a month for insurance coverage.
Kuhn was one of about 1,500 retirees who gathered Tuesday at the MetroPlex Hotel to hear about a revised labor agreement completed just before GM headed into bankruptcy last week. Another 1,500 were expected for an afternoon meeting of United Auto Workers Local 1112.
The other union at the Lordstown complex, Local 1714, had its retiree meeting Monday.
The revised contract calls for retirees to give up their dental and vision insurance but maintains their health-care insurance and pensions.
Retirees said after the meeting Tuesday that they can accept the givebacks.
“It’s OK with me as long as we keep our pensions,” said Christine Asberry, 67, of Campbell, who’s been retired for two years.
GM has said it intends to keep paying pensions despite the bankruptcy.
Not all local retirees have been that fortunate, however.
Delphi Corp.’s salaried retirees recently learned that their former employer plans to drop their pensions under its latest reorganization plan. If that happens, pensions would be paid by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., but many retirees would receive reduced payouts.
The Delphi salaried retirees are having a rally at 9 a.m. Thursday at Packard Electric’s North River Road complex in Warren.
One GM retiree, Bill Anderson, also is concerned about future cuts. He noticed that the revised agreement allows benefits to be changed earlier.
Previously, a trust that is taking over retiree health care next year was able to change benefits in 2012, depending on funding levels in the account. The new agreement allows benefits to be reduced Jan. 1, 2010.
“I’ve made it this far, but I’m worried about the future,” said Anderson, 61, of Canfield, who retired two years ago.
Jim Graham, president of Local 1112, said he was pleased the active UAW members approved the contract, even though it meant some sacrifices by retirees.
“If we hadn’t ratified this contract, it could have gotten a lot worse,” he said.
Mike Emerick, 61, of Austintown said the UAW had to make the deal or else a bankruptcy court judge would have mandated concessions.
“It’s a sacrifice, but we could have lost the whole thing,” he said.
He knows, however, that nothing is certain yet. GM has to emerge from bankruptcy court and survive as an independent company for retirees to continue receiving benefits at current levels.
“It’s hard to say what will happen. Thank God I made a good living when I did. There’s no sense in worrying about it. It’s out of my control,” said Emerick, who retired in 2003.
Dick Heber, 62, of Newton Falls, who retired in 2007, said he will be worried about his future if GM doesn’t survive. But he figures GM will need about two years before its new products take hold in the market and the company is successful again. “There’s a good future for General Motors,” he said.
shilling@vindy.com