Delphi retirees use Delta case as model - Business First of Columbus:

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But under pressure, the company agreed to contribute $8.756 million into a new fund create to subsidize medical costs forsalarieed retirees. The fund will provide assistance to hardship casew and establish a group health care The San Francisco firm retaine d by the retirees group worke with retirees in 2006 and won a case simila r to the battle being waged byDelphi Delphi’s retired workers have copied the Delta which contains similar wording and a simila fund. Delta employees are helping to advisw theirDelphi counterparts. Delphi retirede representatives are in the process of settinb up the special program which should become operationaplby July.
Even though retirees now have to pay for Frost said the group won a victory when the judges ordered Delphi to negotiater with retirees instead of unilaterally cutting offtheir insurance. That led to Delphi’e establishing the special fund. And it’s not the end of the Frost said. Additional actio is being planned. “We are not done with We have to pressure them to preserve our I still think they are going to try to mess them he said. Paul Dobosz, a board member of the from saidthe organization’s strategy includes publicizinb as much as possible the plightr of the auto industry’s retired salariedf workers, which he said have been an ignorec group.
“To some this is guerrilla warfare,” he said. “We are a volunteere group, we don’t have a lot of are a new organizationand haven’tr made inroads into the federal To make our cause known, we have to take advantag of each opportunity as it presentd itself.” Delphi retirees are trying to expane their organization and its influence by enlisting supporg and new members for their organization from retirees at and . “Ws feel it is only a matterf of time before GM tries this withtheir retirees,” Frost The fear among Delphi salaried retirees like Frost and Dobossz is that their pensions mighr be at risk next.
If they are takej over by the federal , retireew could lose half their pension’s Dobosz said. “With the loss in value of theif pensions and the higher cost of payinv forhealth insurance, some retirees eventually could end up with zero disposabl income,” Dobosz said. “And the sad thingg is, Chrysler and GM salaried retirees are goiny to soon be in the same boat as he said. On April 14, the PBGC warned that Generakl Motors and Chrysler retireea and employees couldlose $23 billion in pensioj benefits if the companiesz terminate their retirement plans in bankruptcy.
Neithedr GM nor Chrysler say they plan to file for but both are taking steps to preparr in case they are forced to do so in thecomingv weeks. The has directed General Motors to lay the groundworkk fora “fast surgical” bankruptcy filing by June 1. Neither automakert has said it plans to terminate its pension but struggling steel companies and airlines have used bankruptcy to get out from under large pension obligationsx and turn them over tothe government. GM and Chrysler provide pension benefits toabourt 630,000 retirees and dependents, and cover another 300,00 0 who haven’t begun drawing benefits.
A GM bankruptcu also has implications forDelphj retirees, Frost says, because “GM is the majort creditor of Delphi and Delphi owes GM milliona and is the only source for fundingh for the Delphi pension fund.” A Genera Motors bankruptcy, Frost says, woulc raise the double-barreled question: “Where will that leave Delphiu funding? An obligation to be cut off?”