Delphi salaried retirees eye pension suit - Business First of Columbus:

amesit.wordpress.com
If not stopped, retirees fear that the move coulfd drastically cut the value ofyounger ex-white collar pensions by as much as 50 percent, said Jamesd Frost of Clarence, N.Y., a board membe and organizer of the Delphi Salaried Retiree Association. The legal action is being spearheaded by 100 to 200 retirees in Ohio who belonb tothe 5,400-member association but who are actint on their own, Frost “(The DSRA is) servintg as support by gathering information and sharing it with all our membera and by contacting legislatords around the country,” Frost said. “Wde are not starting our own action because it wouls duplicate what theyare doing.
” The opposition sprang out of the modifieds reorganization plan Delphi disclosed on June 1. The company, to emergwe from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, said it would cancelk its pension obligations and have assume the hourly pensions and the government take over the salaried employees’ plan. Frost, who worked at GM for 25 yearsa and at Delphifor six, said hourl y workers’ pensions won’t be affected “at least in the shor t term” but salaried workers who retired at 55 coule lose half the value of “We want our pensions also to be transferrer to GM,” he said. The suit wouled charge Delphi, GM, the union, II and the U.S.
Treasurh with collusion againstthe retirees. In the reorganizatiohn plan for Delphi, GM’s former parts II LLC — a unit of Platinum Equity — would acquire and operates Delphi’s U.S. and non-U.S. businesses by supplying $3.6 billion in Delphi was formed in 1999 when GM spun off its partdsmanufacturing division. The Troy, Mich.,-basedd company, GM’s largest supplier, filed for Chaptere 11 bankruptcy protection inOctoberd 2005. Fallout from the company’s financialk troubles included the closure of a plantron Columbus’ west side, whicuh employed more than 400 at the time it closed.