Dayton Daily News, Ohio, Mary McCarty column [Dayton Daily News, Ohio]

Nov. 14--During her 31 years with General Motors, and later Delphi, Mary Miller received glossy personal benefit summaries about what her retirement would look like -- her health benefits, stock savings, pension plans. "Year after year they sent it, and I believed them," she said.

One year after her forced retirement in 2008, however, Miller and 20,000 other retired Delphi salaried employees in 46 states lost health benefits and much of their pensions.

"I was very loyal and dedicated and responsible," Miller said. "Delphi workers did our part and we did it well. We were betrayed."

The bailout of GM has been praised for keeping the American auto industry alive, but Miller and other local Delphi retirees often feel like the forgotten casualties.

Many are working post-retirement jobs, asking their spouses to defer retirement, or even being forced to sell their homes.

Instead of the comfortable retirement she had planned for, Miller feels near-constant stress about finances. She feels guilty she can no longer help her children with their medical benefits or college expenses. "Your kids are still your kids, and you want to help provide the basics," she said.

The Washington Twp. mother of four will be one of the panelists at today's Delphi pension field hearing before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, requested by U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville. The hearing, titled "Delphi Pension Fallout: Federal Government Picked Winners and Losers, So Who Won and Who Lost," is open to the public and will begin at 9 a.m. in Smith Auditorium at Sinclair Community College. Other panelists will include former Delphi Corporation executives Chuck Cunningham and Steve Gebbia.

Turner's own father worked for GM for 44 years. "I come from a GM family and this is something that has affected my family personally," Turner said.

Turner said he agrees with the Delphi Salaried Retirees' Association that a "clear injustice" has been perpetrated when their benefit cuts are compared with those of GM retirees and Delphi union retirees. In 2009, in the final year of its four-year stay in bankruptcy protection, Delphi ended health and life insurance benefits for salaried retirees and turned pension obligations to the federally backed Pension and Benefit Guaranty Corp., whose stated mission is to protect American pensions. That meant pension cuts of 30 to 70 percent for salaried retirees, including about 700 in the Dayton area. Meanwhile, union pensions and health care benefits have remained untouched. "It's good everyone else is keeping their benefits and pensions -- they earned it," Miller said. "But we did, too."

Concurred Turner, "the fact that the administration picked winners and losers doesn't mean everyone should have lost. I can't speculate why that has happened."

In September, Turner sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner reiterating 25 questions he had raised at a June hearing on the issue. "The administration has stonewalled our requests," Turner said.

Vincent Snowbarger, the PBGC's deputy director for operations, will be among the panelists. White House spokesman Adam Abrams declined comment.

Turner became involved after Washington Twp. resident Tom Rose, a former plant manager at the Kettering Boulevard Delphi plant, came forward with his concerns. "The reason for the hearing to get on record their concerns and what they see as inappropriate actions of GM and their government," Turner said.

U.S. Rep. Steve Austria, R-Beavercreek, also has gotten involved, meeting with Delphi salaried retirees last week in Washington. He recently also wrote a letter to Geithner protesting the way the retirees were treated.

Turner said he's impressed with the organizational ability of the Delphi Salaried Retirees Association: "You can see why the company was successful as long as it was this management team. The Delphi retirees have addressed this in a corporate fashion."

Rose added: "The hearing is one more step as we try to get the answers that have been denied us. We were working for the same company, in the same situation, yet how can we be treated so distinctly differently? We're not asking for an entitlement or a handout; we're asking for the deferred compensation that we earned."

Rose, 65, suspects Delphi salaried retirees were singled out "because we don't have the same political clout as the union members. We're not saying they don't deserve it, but we do, too."

Rose worked for GM for 30 years and another nine with Delphi. He and his wife, Jaci, are now paying three times more for their health care -- and doing it with 40 percent fewer pension dollars. They're dipping into their retirement savings much earlier than expected, and Jaci waited extra years before retiring from her job at a frame shop. They haven't done the kind of traveling they had planned.

They feel lucky compared with other retirees. Their three children are grown; they planned carefully for their future. "The biggest emotion is betrayal," Rose confessed. "I fielded all those middle-of-the-night calls dealing with a plant problem or an employee problem. And then to have the company turn their backs on us and our own government take part in the decision that we'll be the losers in this -- it's hard to take."

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