Officials: Protect pensions

Staff report

washington

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown urged the Obama administration to protect the imperiled pensions of thousands of retired auto-industry workers Wednesday.

In a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Ryan and Brown implored the administration to protect the retirement security of former auto-industry workers who are at risk for losing as much as $35 billion in total pension benefits.

The letter, sent Wednesday, was drafted in response to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office, which stated that General Motors and Chrysler will need to put billions of dollars into their pensions over the next five years to meet funding requirements.

The report “raised a number of alarming concerns about the conflicting roles and responsibilities of the Treasury Department,” the letter states.

If the automakers terminate the pensions, retirees would lose billions of dollars in benefits, and the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. would be forced to assume $42 billion in liabilities, the letter states.

Ryan and Brown urged the administration not to accept the unfunded pensions.

“As a majority owner in General Motors, the U.S. government must not put itself in the pensions,” the letter states. “It also would be a poor outcome for the U.S. taxpayer to sell our interests in the auto sector only to have the U.S. government to assume the unfunded liabilities in their pension plans.”