Portman seeks help for Delphi retirees

Portman seeks help for Delphi retirees

Youngstown

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman is pushing the Obama administration to look into the treatment of retired Delphi salaried workers during the bankruptcy of General Motors.

Portman reached out to former Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams, who is now executive director of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers, asking for a remedy for workers who lost a significant portion of their pension benefits.

Delphi workers lost an estimated 30 percent to 70 percent in benefits when its benefit pension plan was terminated. There are 1,500 salaried Delphi retirees in the Mahoning Valley.

Portman also submitted testimony at multiple congressional hearings to share his concerns with the treatment of these workers.

Timken expansion worth $225 million

CANTON

A United Steelworkers union has approved a five-year contract that will allow a $225 million expansion of an Ohio manufacturing plant to proceed.

Local Canton members of the union overwhelmingly approved a five-year contract with the Timken manufacturing company Tuesday.

The Akron Beacon Journal reports the contract covers workers at four plants operated by Canton-based Timken, which manufactures industrial bearings and specialty steel products.

Though workers voted in January to reject a previous agreement reached by union leaders, Tuesday’s vote ensures the expansion at Timken’s Faircrest plant.

Joe Hoagland, president of Local 1123, said the new agreement retains a $5,000 retirement bonus the rejected version would have eliminated. The current contract expires in September 2013.

Vindicator staff/wire reports