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Below is the text of letters to the editor from DSRA members published on the opinion page of "The Hill". You can see the letters on The Hill by clicking here.
Non-union, salaried workers shafted in U.S. deal with GM
By Jim Hagenbach, Delphi Corp. salaried workers’ representative, appointed by U.S. Trustee - 09/16/09 05:12 PM ET
After reading your article on Ron Bloom and his great accomplishment of saving GM and Chrysler from bankruptcy (“Manufacturing czar likely to have more sway,” Sept. 8), I think the American people should know the whole story. Mr. Bloom, the new manufacturing czar and head of the auto recovery task force, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and President Barack Obama do not want the American people to understand the unfair and unequal treatment of salaried autoworkers.
The Delphi Corp. workers who worked for decades for GM have been segregated — some represented (union workers) and some non-represented (salaried worker-engineers, accountants and clerks). The task force and Treasury decided that the union workers’ healthcare and pensions would be saved, but not the salaried workers’.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) stated Delphi salaried workers got a raw deal and asked the GM head to reverse the decision to exclude them from the pension deal and to treat them equitably. Rep. Chris Lee (R-N.Y.) has led an effort to get a bipartisan group of 46 congressional members to jointly request a hearing to understand this issue, and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) agreed to hold a hearing. To date President Obama, Secretary Geithner, Mr. Bloom and GM CEO Fritz Henderson have not responded to any requests or objections regarding the unfair treatment of this non-represented class of worker.
New York
From Den Black, interim president, Delphi Salaried Retirees Association
In the process of the GM “deal,” over 15,000 salaried retirees of GM’s spun-off components and systems unit — Delphi Corp. — were thrown under the bus. While the auto recovery task force, GM, and Delphi agreed to default the pension plans for all classes of Delphi employees to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC), only the pensions for GM-Delphi salaried retirees were singled out for discrimination.
While Delphi retirees represented by the United Auto Workers union and the International Union of Electrical Workers-Communications Workers of America will have their pensions topped off to the levels they would have received directly from GM-Delphi, GM-Delphi salaried retirees will receive very significantly reduced pensions under PBGC limits set by Congress.
Mr. President and members of Congress, now is the time for you to stand in the shoes of GM-Delphi salaried retirees, against whom fortune has turned, largely at the hand of our government — the auto task force. |
