Ryan, Turner found task force on Delphi pensions

Staff report

WASHINGTON

U.S. Reps. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-13th, and Mike Turner of Centerville, R-10th, have founded the Auto Industry Pension Task Force, which will work to educate other House members about issues related to Delphi salaried retirees.

The two will serve as co-chairmen of the bipartisan group.

The retirees lost their health and life-insurance policies and had their pensions cut by 30 percent to 70 percent as part of Delphi’s 2009 bankruptcy. There are about 20,000 salaried retirees, including 1,500 in the Mahoning Valley.

“The work of the task force will be to build a coalition of members that will help us ensure that the Delphi retirees can continue their retirement knowing that they will have the benefits promised to them while they were working,” Ryan said.

Den Black, chairman of the Delphi Salaried Retirees Association, said in a statement Thursday that the association appreciated the help from the congressmen.

“We look forward to the support the task force will bring to bear on our issue, and we especially look forward to finally achieving a fair and equitable resolution to our issues,” Black said.

He added that to date, the Delphi salaried retirees and several congressional committees have demanded access to records held by the U.S. Treasury that will reveal the decisions that resulted in the salaried retirees’ losing up to 70 percent of their pensions.

“So far, the Treasury has refused to provide those records and has moved in court to prevent them from being revealed,” Black said. “As to a House Ways and Means Committee demand to be permitted access to these documents, the [Obama] administration has threatened to use executive privilege to keep the records secret, even though the request concerns a pension issue, not national security.”