Saturday, February 11, 2012YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Jay Williams promised to take the concerns that representatives of the Delphi Salaried Retiree Association expressed back to Washington following a two-hour meeting today.
Williams, executive director of the Office of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers and former mayor, met with Delphi retirees' representatives Bruce Gump and Mary Ann Hudzik in the George V. Voinovich Government Center downtown.
The association, which represents 22,000 members including 1,500 in the Mahoning Valley, charges that Delphi's salaried retirees were treated differently than the hourly retirees when Delphi's pensions were restructured as part of the federal government-managed bankruptcy of General Motors Corp.
Williams, selected by President Obama last summer to head the recovery office, characterized the meeting, which was closed to the media, as a "listening session" when he met with reporters afterward. "I intended to do more listening than talking to make sure that we were able to hear the status update of the issues the retiree association is facing," he said, and take those concerns and make sure they are "properly communicated" to the appropriate administration officials and agencies.
He also discussed how his office can leverage federal resources to help communities such as Youngstown, Warren and the Mahoning Valley that have been hurt by the changes in the auto industry over the past several years.
"I'm not in a position to talk about the specifics," Williams said, "but I can tell you there is commitment" on the part of the president and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis "to make sure that we are coordinating and fighting, tapping into federal resources that will help affected communities overcome the challenges they face."
The retirees' issue is legitimate, he added, "but they acknowledge and embrace a larger approach to make sure that we raise the level of economic activity in the Mahoning Valley in general." He also said he could not address the litigation the retirees association is pursuing.
"The right thing to do here is for all the retirees of Delphi to be treated in a like manner. If one group should get their pensions, then all groups should get their pensions," Gump said. Gump is vice chairman of the retiree association and chairman of the Warren Legislative Group.
Williams "listened very intently" and "asked many questions" as the retirees shared information and expectations, Gump said. "We gave a lot of information back to him and we asked him to take that information to the administration and hopefully move this issue toward resolution. Of course he can't promise any resolution but he did say that he would take the information to the administration."
Representatives of U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and U.S. Reps. Tim Ryan, D-17 Ohio, and Bill Johnson, R-6 Ohio, also attended the meeting of Williams and the Delphi retirees. Before the meeting ended, Brown and Ryan, through their respective offices, issued a joint statement applauding the meeting, which they helped arrange.
"As Jay knows from his years spent in the Mahoning Valley, thousands of retirees in Ohio dedicated their careers to working for Delphi and General Motors. Many of these retirees are continuing to experience economic hardship following the collapse of their former employer," Brown said. He further encouraged Williams to do "whatever possible" to help the retirees.
"Former Delphi union and salaried retirees continue to struggle with the fallout from a policy that wiped away many of the financial promises Delphi made to its workforce," Ryan said. "The treatment of these former Delphi employees was unjust when it was proposed, and it continues to be unjust today." He expressed confidence that Williams would take the retirees' concerns back to Washington "and continue to work toward a resolution that fairly restores some of the promises Delphi made to its workforce in better times."
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.