Lawmakers talk legislative fix for Delphi salaried retirees

Mar. 3—Legislators from Ohio and Michigan unveiled legislation Thursday meant to restore full pension benefits for salaried retirees of Delphi, a move that could benefit hundreds of Dayton-area retirees who worked for the auto parts manufacturer.

U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., said in an online press conference that the bill is supported by Republicans and Democrats, and the hope is to get the measure to President Biden's desk "in some form."

This bill would make up the difference between what the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) paid Delphi's salaried retirees and what they were owed by the company. Retirees have said that in some cases they lost up to 70% of their expected pensions when the PBGC took over the pension plan in 2009.

"They played by the rules, and then they had the rug pulled out from under them, and that's not right," Kildee said of the retirees.

Bruce Gump, a Delphi retiree, said most Delphi retirees live in Ohio and Michigan, but many also live all over the nation. He called their fight to restore their pensions "a 13-year nightmare."

"Some surviving spouses were left with nothing at all," Gump said.

"Pensions are a sacred trust," said Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton. "And the fact that the federal government stepped in and picked winners and losers, resulting in that trust being broken, requires a federal fix, requires us to step in."

"We don't always agree on everything in this town, but I'm glad we came together on this because we're going to do everything we can for" the Delphi retirees, Kildee said.

"This isn't a handout to anybody," said Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Youngstown. "This is something they earned. "

Turner first told the Dayton Daily News last October that for the first time, a bipartisan, bicameral attempt to make Delphi salaried retirees whole was being attempted — a legislative effort to address the fact that many Delphi salaried retirees have not been getting paid their full pensions for well over a decade.

Auto parts producer and one-time Dayton manufacturer Delphi (now Aptiv Plc) filed for bankruptcy in October 2005. General Motors, which used to own Delphi, went through its own bankruptcy journey four years later.

An association of retired Delphi salaried employees sued the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. in 2009 after the agency took over employee pensions in the wake of Delphi's bankruptcy.

The relinquishment of the pensions to the PBGC left Delphi salaried retirees with greatly diminished pensions, which stung particularly because GM continued contributing to the pensions of union-represented retirees, under the guidance of the then-new Obama administration.

It also bothered retirees because, they held, the pension was in relatively good shape at the time, about 86% funded in 2009.

The salaried retirees never begrudged their hourly counterparts their full pensions — they simply wanted the same treatment.

In January, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the Delphi retirees' final appeal in the case, ending their legal battle and forcing an attempt at a legislative fix.

Some observers have long felt this was a job for Congress.

"What happened 10 years ago was a tragedy, but what has happened since has been a scam because the politicians won't do the one thing that will get the pensions back," Joshua Gotbaum, who led the PBGC from late 2010 until 2014, told the Dayton Daily News in 2020.

The PBGC's takeover of the pensions affected more than 20,000 salaried retirees nationwide — including over 5,000 in Ohio, according to the lawmakers.