Congress Focuses on Delphi Bankruptcy’s Impact on Workers, Retirees
November 27, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The U.S. House Education and Labor Committee will conduct a hearing next Wednesday on the pensions and benefits that may be cut because of the Delphi Corp. bankruptcy.
While the Committee’s website doesn’t yet list witnesses, Congressman Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), and Bruce Gump, Delphi retiree representative, are scheduled to testify at the December 2 hearing, according to the Youngstown (Ohio) Vindicator.
Ryan said the decision to have the hearing came after his request to Congressman George Miller, chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor; and Rob Andrews, chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions, according to the Vindicator report. “I’m excited to speak on behalf of nearly 70,000 hard-working Americans, over 5,000 of whom are in my district, whose retirement benefits are threatened by circumstances beyond their control,” said Ryan, according to the report.
In July, Ryan introduced legislation to provide funding for a Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association, which would cover Delphi hourly and salaried employees and retirees who lost their health coverage through Delphi and GM’s Chapter 11 bankruptcies.
Gump is a member of the Delphi Salaried Retirees Association, which has been fighting Delphi’s decision to terminate its pension plans and turn them over to the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, according to the report.
More information on the hearing is available at http://edlabor.house.gov/hearings/2009/12/examining-the-delphi-bankruptc.shtml