U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown has scheduled a news conference on Monday to discuss the fight to restore Delphi Salaried Retiree's Pensions.
 
This has been over a decade-long bipartisan effort. 
 
Brown has sponsored the Susan Muffley Act, and U.S. Senator JD Vance is a co-sponsor. 
 
That bill would restore the fully vested monthly benefits for eligible participants of certain pension plans that were sponsored by Delphi Corporation and terminated.
 
Senator Brown, a Democrat, and Congressman Michael Turner a Republican will be at that news conference.  
 
Congressman Turner reintroduced the legislation in 2023.  
 
The bill would provide backpay for the pension payments that should have been received for the past 13 years.
 
It would restore full pension payments going forward for more than 21,000 Delphi retirees. 
 
About 5,1800 retirees live in Ohio. 
 
 During the height of its success during the 80's Packard Electric which became Delphi Packard Automotive Systems, became the world's largest wiring and auto parks maker in the world. 
 
Delphi, a division of General Motors, led the way in technologies that make your car SUV, or truck more convenient for drivers and passengers. 
 
Without an engine wiring harness, one can't start a car, truck, or SUV. 
 
"In addition, there were suspension systems, and steering systems, and interior systems, and several other things including electronics Delco Electronics," Bruce Gump, Chairman of the Delphi Salaried Retirees Association said.
 
But when GM, the former parent company of Delphi filed bankruptcy and sought a multibillion-dollar bailout from the government 
during the Great Recession,  the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation took over pensions. 
 
GM agreed to top up members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, IBEW, and Communications Workers of America, CWA. 
 
 
But they did not do the same for thousands of salaried retirees of Delphi. 
  
Workers were promised about one-third of their pay but most lost from up to 70% of the pensions they had earned.
 
Bruce Gump who has been fighting for 15 years tells us the consequences were devastating.
 
"So there were a lot of homes that were lost, families that broke up, there were a few suicides. One woman who was fighting cancer to save her family all the expenses, with no health care insurance and no pension, decided to commit suicide to save her family, all because her husband was not in a union," said Gump.
 
Gump tells 21 News they are fighting misconceptions. The PBGC increased the liabilities and increased them by 1.6 billion dollars 
yet every other actuary had calculated a much lower amount. Congress has been laboring under the impression it was badly underfunded. 
 
"Delphi was growing during the bankruptcy and we were getting more and more customers and our business was increasing, but it was a problem at GM when the government stepped in to rescue General Motors,  the problem was Delphi's bankruptcy and trying to exit from bankruptcy so they worked to end Delphi's bankruptcy, and the quickest way to do that was to terminate the pension plan and just get it out of the way," Gump said.
 
He explained the Auto Team working to save the auto industry worked with the PBGC and cut them a deal to get rid of the liens so Delphi could sell the assets and finance their exit from bankruptcy. Doing that left everyone not in the union out in the out," Gump added.
 
Gump tells us U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown and JD Vance continue that fight in a bipartisan effort to get the Susan Muffley Act passed.  That legislation is in a
Senate SubCommittee and he is hoping a full hearing will be scheduled soon so lawmakers can learn more about the injustice.
 
"We are moving forward and it is a nonpartisan issue. I would point out President Biden has issued a statement of support for the bill, and some Republicans and Democrats are co-sponsors of this bill. This is not controversial. It is the right thing to do," Gump emphasized. 
 
"We want to know how the PBGC chooses to terminate a plan, and how the administration at the time forced GM into bankruptcy. You might remember it was the Auto Team who fired the GM CEO who did not want to take the company into bankruptcy, hired a new cooperative CEO,  packed their board and demanded they declare bankruptcy, and manipulated the process as to which liabilities would move forward into the new company. It was the government making the decision not a vulture company trying to buy them making the decisions," Gump added.
 
"Senator Brown has been working hard to move the bill forward in the Senate Finance Committee. If we can get a hearing in that committee then we can tell our story," Gump said. 
 
I am not just fighting for pensions, I am fighting for my kids and other people's kids and grandchildren along with current and future employees Gump tells 21 News. 
 
"This is not just about us. It is about much more than that. The precedents set by the government in 2009 can be applied to anyone else in the future. Their criteria is that if you're not strong enough to fight back we don't have to do anything for you," Gump said.
 
The bill is named after Susan Muffley, who was part of the group's core leadership in the effort to restore their pensions.  Her husband, David, Worked at Delphi as an electronics technician for 31 years but lost the full value of his pension in 2009.