The White House pretended to champion American workers this week with gimmicky initiatives on federal job training and “workplace innovation.” But far from the Beltway dog-and-pony show, a group of American workers ruthlessly shafted by the Obama administration was finally getting some real support — and inching toward justice. It was five years ago this summer that 20,000 white-collar nonunion workers from Delphi (a leading auto parts company spun off from GM in 1999) had their pensions sabotaged as part of a rotten White House deal with Big Labor. Two court rulings this summer have given the victims hope. Their plight must not be forgotten.
Remember when Washington rushed to
nationalize the U.S. auto industry with $80 billion in taxpayer “rescue” funds
and avoid contested court termination proceedings? Behind closed doors, the
Obama administration’s auto team schemed with labor bosses from United
Automobile Workers to preserve union members’ costly pension funds by screwing
over their nonunion counterparts. The federally backed Pension Benefit Guaranty
Corp., which had the fiduciary duty to represent the best interests of all the
Delphi workers, helped sacrifice the nonunion employees at the UAW altar. While
union pensions were topped up with tax-subsidized auto bailout funds, nonunion
pensioners were left high and dry.
In addition, the nonunion pensioners lost
all of their health and life insurance benefits. The abused workers — most from
hard-hit northeast Ohio, Michigan and neighboring states — had devoted decades
of their lives as secretaries, technicians, engineers and sales employees at
Delphi/GM. Some workers saw up to 70 percent of their pensions vanish…..To Read More….
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