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House Committee Subpoenas Delphi Pension Documents
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. House of Representatives’ Oversight and Government Reform Committee subpoenaed Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew last week to turn over information related to the committee’s investigation into alleged preferential treatment afforded to Delphi’s unionized employees during the bankruptcy and taxpayer-funded bailout of General Motors.
“Taxpayers deserve the full truth about how decisions were made to use their money in an administration effort that resulted in protecting generous pensions for unionized Delphi employees while greatly diminishing benefits for non-unionized employees,” said U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-49 Calif., committee chairman, in a letter co-signed by Subcommittee Chairman John Mica, R-7 Fla.; and Rep. Michael Turner, R-10 Ohio. “Nearly a year after the committee’s last request, the department still had not fully responded; the department instead provided only a fraction of the responsive documents.”
Den Black, chairman of the Delphi Salaried Retirees Association, said the organization has waited more than four years for this to happen. “The more that 20,000 intentionally, needlessly and egregiously harmed 'middle class' Delphi salaried people wish to express their sincere gratitude for taking this action,” he said.
Added Bruce Gump, vice chairman of the association, “Over the last four years the Obama Administration and the PBGC have worked diligently to prevent the whole truth from being revealed, using every opportunity and legal maneuver to delay any revelation which had to be forced through litigation between the retirees and the PBGC in the federal court. In spite of those efforts to keep the records secret, the Delphi Salaried Retirees Association has learned a great deal and so we are very confident we can and will win our lawsuit. But our desire is only for the full restoration of the pensions we earned just like the members of the major unions have received.”
The subpoena seeks all records and communications referring or relating to retirement or pension benefits for General Motors Co. and/or Delphi Corp. employees, sent or received by any employee of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, to or from any employee of the President’s Automotive Task Force; any employee of the United Auto Workers; any employee of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.; any employee of General Motors Co.; any employee of Delphi Corp.; any employee of DPH Holdings Corp.; or any public official.
A July 23 letter from Issa to Lew outlined earlier requests sent Jan. 13, 2010, Aug. 8, 2011 and Sept. 27, 2012. The Subcommittee on Government Operations held a field hearing on the Delphi pension bailout June 10.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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