Testimony heard on Delphi pensions

DAYTON — Two members of the U.S. House of Representatives just wrapped up a hearing in Dayton about Delphi salaried workers and their four year battle with the federal government to regain their full pensions.

U.S. Rep., Mike Turner, a Republican from Dayton and U,S, Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations, heard testimony from three members of the Delphi Salaried Retirees Association, including Bruce Gump of Warren, at Sinclair Community College.

General Motors Co. created Delphi in 1999 as a parts supplier. While in bankruptcy in 2009, Delphi terminated the pension plans of its workers.

At the hearing, the lawmakers pledged their unwavering support in aiding more than 20,000 salaried workers who saw their pensions cut by 70 percent when the government’s pension insurer, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp, assumed the plans shortly after Delphi terminated them.

A legal battle has since unfolded with the salaried retirees heaping blame on the PBGC, the U.S. Treasury Department and the Obama Administration for withholding certain documents the group claims are crucial to showing that its pension benefits were illegally cut.

Today’s hearing was just the second on the matter since 2011.