As president visits auto plants, he should address Delphi pensions

As president visits auto plants, he should address Delphi pensions

When President Obama visits GM and Chrysler plants in Detroit on Friday, most everyone with a personal stake in these two companies will likely join in the celebration. They certainly are stronger after having been led by the administration through last year’s bankruptcies. Employees, retirees, suppliers and dealers have made a variety of sacrifices.

But amidst all the hoopla, 20,000 retired and current salaried employees of Delphi Corp. (spun off by GM in 1999) want to remind the president that we paid an added, unfair price. In the government’s preoccupation with getting GM quickly through bankruptcy, it decided last summer that our pension plan had to be seized by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC). We did not receive all of the protections available to us under federal laws pertaining to bankruptcy and retirement because we weren’t represented in these back room Washington talks. And recently, we discovered that our plan — when it was seized — was rated 86 percent funded (considered healthy) according to key actuarial data from the reputable firm Watson Wyatt. This assessment of the plan’s health has since been corroborated by a second reputable firm (Wells Fargo Company’s BPS&M).

Our plan was better funded (i.e., assets available to cover promised pensions) than the average for the 100 largest private employer pension plans. If the PBGC was really so concerned about the soundness of our plan, why did it discharge — for minimal value — liens on Delphi assets that could have protected our pensions and give up the right to file additional liens on Delphi’s foreign assets?

Meanwhile, Delphi’s hourly retirees whose pension plan also was seized by the PBGC are being made whole on their pensions via so-called “top up” payments from GM, funded by the federal government.

The pensions Delphi salaried employees worked a lifetime for — mostly during our careers at GM prior to its 1999 spin off of Delphi — have been slashed by as much as 70 percent for some of us. This has occurred at a time in our lives when it’s essentially impossible to adjust our retirement plans, sell our homes and downsize to free up equity to pay bills, and/or find jobs to offset the lost pension.

Our fate was decided in the GM bankruptcy process overseen by U.S. Treasury and the Auto Task Force. They have been re-examining the hasty handling of many issues in that process, and recently decided that many GM dealerships slated for closure will remain in business.

Likewise, Delphi salaried retirees, their families and friends urge President Obama to direct the government to perform at once the same thorough review of its handling of the salaried pension plan.

We ask for nothing more.

Bruce Gump, Warren

The wrtier is chairman, Warren Legislative Group, Delphi Salaried Retirees Association.