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Rallying for Delphi pensions
A class-action suit to protect retirees’ benefits is still an option, says a Packard retiree.
WARREN — Leaders of the area Delphi Salaried Retirees Association say a bankruptcy judge’s statement that the bidding to purchase Delphi should be opened up is positive news for the retirees.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain said Wednesday that a formal sale process needs to be put in place to ensure that the potential sale of Delphi’s assets results in the greatest possible return for the auto supplier’s stakeholders, according to the Associated Press.
Judge Drain said potential bids from the Troy, Mich.-based Delphi Corp.’s lenders and other parties need to be considered before the deal between the company and an affiliate of the private equity firm Platinum Equity can be allowed to go through.
The judge’s statements have the potential to slow down the process and give retirees and creditors more time to make their case in court and in the court of public opinion, said Chuck Cunningham, former senior executive at Delphi Packard Electric, who with his wife, Mary Ann, also a retired Delphi executive, led a retirees’ rally Thursday.
The rally, attended by an estimated 200 to 300 people, was conducted at Larchmont Avenue and North River Road, at the edge of the parking lot of the Delphi Packard plant where many of the retirees had worked.
The thrust of the Cunninghams’ and others’ message to the retirees is that they must stick together and continue fighting if they are to achieve equal treatment with respect to health benefits and pensions with hourly Delphi and GM retirees.
Most of the retirees carried signs aimed at Delphi, General Motors and the federal government, proclaiming “Excellence Means Keeping Your Promises.” A homemade sign that said “Reinventing GM One Broken Promise at a Time,” reflected the attitude of the retirees, who cheered when passing vehicles honked their horns.
“The current Delphi and GM management have forgotten what excellence means. We need to make the bankruptcy court and the government understand we won’t let them discriminate against us,” Mary Ann Cunningham said.
Chuck Cunningham thinks Delphi’s reorganization plan is, in reality, a liquidation plan.
If the deal to is permitted to go forward as it is now, Platinum would “flip,” or sell Delphi in a short period of time, making billions of dollars and leaving salaried retirees receiving just 30 percent to 70 percent of their pensions if they are taken over by the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., which insures pensions.
Bob Poweski of Howland, who was a manufacturing and skilled-trades supervisor when he retired April 1, after 30 years with Delphi Packard, blamed the situation on corporate greed.
“They want to get out of obligations,” he said of the loss of health care and pending reduced pensions.
“If they had told me 30 years ago that I would have to provide for my own retirement, I would have had a whole different lifestyle. You give them your life and your loyalty, then this. I feel betrayed,” he said.
“Phone, fax and phone again. The only way we can win is to be such a pain that they want us to just go away,” said Bruce Gump, former senior engineer in the advanced-engineering department.
Chuck Cunningham said he thinks the retirees have options in bankruptcy court, given life by Judge Drain’s comments Wednesday; and in the “court of public opinion. We need it on our side.”
Also, he said plans for a class-action discrimination suit on behalf of the Delphi retirees are moving forward. “I believe we have legal recourse. It will take time and money, and we have to be willing to do that.”
“There has never been a lack of fight in Packard folks. We’re not going to stand for this. I don’t know if we will win, but we will try,” Cunningham said.
alcorn@vindy.com