By Michael Husar, President, Delphi Retirees Chapter

The Delphi Retirees Chapter was formed in June 2022 through an agreement between the NRLN and the Delphi Salaried Retirees Association (DSRA). The Chapter provides Delphi retirees (salaried and hourly) broader exposure to retirement issues, efforts to protect Social Security and Medicare and additional exposure for lobbying Congress to fully restore salaried retirees’ pensions.

Currently, the primary focus of Chapter members is to get the Susan Muffley Act (SMA) passed. We are working to get two identical bills – one in the House and one in the Senate – with our congressional supporters to supplant the 3 existing bills. This will make it easier to get the SMA passed. We are also working to “grease the skids” with appropriate Congressional committees and key legislative directors to ensure our bills are included in the next appropriate “large” bill coming up. Please note that this is not a “bail out” but a correction to an error that the PBGC and the Auto Task Force made in terminating our pensions. As currently proposed, this Act should require no taxpayer funds.

Background

Delphi, General Motors’ biggest supplier, filed for bankruptcy in 2005, but continued to build and ship parts to its customers. In 2009, during the GM bankruptcy the U.S. Treasury, in an effort to avoid an auto industry collapse, formed an “Auto Team” to direct GM through bankruptcy in an unprecedented 40 days.

The Auto Team needed Delphi to quickly exit bankruptcy and insisted that Delphi shed its pension obligations. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) took over the Delphi salaried retirees pension plan which was a historically well-funded pension plan until 2009. As a result, 20,000 salaried retirees lost up to 70% of their pension.

Federal funds propped up the Delphi and GM unions’ pension plans and they were not taken over by the PBGC. Thus, very few union members saw any pension reduction.

Initially, salaried retirees pleaded their case in the courts. After the U.S. Supreme Court declined on January 18, 2022, to hear their case, they turned to Congress to restore their pensions.

Additional Corporate history is provided further below.

NRLN Delphi Retirees Chapter

The Delphi Retirees Chapter is now one of 16 NRLN Chapters. We believe you will see the value of being a Chapter member and will want to encourage Delphi retirees you know to join the Chapter. There are no Chapter membership dues. A letter will be sent to invite members to make an annual voluntary contribution of $35 or more. Contributions support the Chapter and the NRLN’s work to lobby for legislation to protect retirees’ interests. For example, One of the NRLN’s lobbying efforts is for the funding of Social Security and Medicare. The Social Security Trustees annual report issued last month stated, the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund will only be able to pay scheduled benefits until 2033. At that time, the funds reserves will become depleted and tax income will only be sufficient to pay 77% of the scheduled benefits. The Medicare Trustees reported, the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund (Medicare Part A) will only be able to pay scheduled benefits until 2033. At that time, the fund’s reserve will become depleted and will only be sufficient to pay 90% of scheduled benefits. Medicare Part B (physician services) is adequately financed from general revenues and beneficiary premiums.

The Chapter’s webpage is intended to provide information of interest to Delphi retirees. We request your comments on what you would like to see on the webpage. Send an email with your ideas to nrlnmessage@msn.com. Please provide your input on your thoughts and information for

A “tombstone” section to post recent retiree deaths.
Set up “plant/divisional” sub chapters for retirees’ comments.
Post plant and divisional pictures to enhance the webpage.
Provide links to retirees Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.

If you would like to be part of the Chapter’s leadership team, such as, vice presidents for legislative affairs, membership development, webpage editor or some other role send an email to nrlnmessage@msn.com.

We encourage you to regularly visit your Chapter’s webpage and the entire NRLN website at www.nrln.org. One of the important navigation tabs is “Legislative Action Network” where you will find the NRLN’s 2022 Legislative Agenda, White Papers, Executive Summaries and Talking Points on our lobbying issues. Take a few minutes to watch or listen to one or more of our video/podcasts.

Together we can make the Delphi Retirees Chapter an asset for our retirement years.

Mike Husar, President
Delphi Retirees Chapter

Bill Kadereit President
National Retiree Legislative Network

Corporate History

Visitors to the NRLN website may be interested in learning about Delphi retirees’ corporate history. Our roots go back to 1909 when 5,000 spark ignition sets were ordered for the 1910 Cadillac from National Cash Register Company (NCR) co-workers Charles Kettering and Edward Deeds. That caused them to form the Dayton Engineering Laboratories company (Delco).

In 1918, General Motors (GM) acquired the United Motors Company which had been formed to house several prominent parts manufacturers, including Delco. All of those companies became part of General Motors Corporation in 1920. Other component manufacturers such as Packard Electric were acquired in the years that followed.

GM established the General Motors’ Automotive Components Group in 1994, which changed its name to Delphi Automotive Systems in 1995. GM spun off Delphi on May 28, 1999, as a publicly traded company.

A group of private investors purchased Delphi’s core assets to create a new Delphi Corporation in October 2009. The old Delphi Corporation was renamed DPH Holdings Corporation.