Nonunion Auto Retirees Cry Foul Over Deal

by William Ehart and Andrea Billups - December 24th, 2009 - The Washington Times

... 22,000 other Delphi salaried retirees understand these are hard times for everyone, especially those in the auto industry -- but they feel discriminated against because they did not belong to a union.

That's because GM is making up a $4.3 billion pension shortfall for its union workers and retirees who split off with Delphi, but not the $2.5 billion shortfall for salaried workers and retirees. About 46,000 union retirees are involved.

About 400 retirees at American Axle & Manufacturing are also affected, even though they never worked for Delphi. The company was created in 1994 when GM sold five plants to American Axle. GM kept those workers' pensions, then placed them with Delphi after the spin-off.

Delphi, based in Troy, Mich., has since closed most of its North American plants. Its current salaried employees' pensions are also being slashed.

Mrs. Hampton, who supports President Obama, doesn't understand why the salaried retirees and employees were singled out and wants the government to make them whole, too.

Just as the Democratic administration was accused of tilting the playing field in favor of its union allies in other aspects of GM's bankruptcy, salaried Delphi retirees say the union pension deal is unfair.

It is all about power, not wealth. It always was. These people do not have a problem with someone else's money being stolen in a bankruptcy that ignores the rule of law and favors those with political power. They think only about themselves. They just don't like when it is not them getting the special deals. They think only about themselves just as they have their entire working lives.

They didn't care about the non-union workers who had to pay more than their cars were worth back when the UAW was able to extort exorbitant wages from GM, which even non union workers at GM benefited from.

It is still all about me... me... me... and they don't like the new rules.

The lady in the article does not care about people who are not as well off as she whose life savings were stolen in the bankruptcies of Chrysler and GM. They were the "rich" whose wealth Obama was going to redistribute. She never cared until it turned out that the definition of rich was pliable. Non union workers turned out to be a part of the rich too.

Now it is whine... whine... whine...

This isn't fair she whines. It was not supposed to be her wealth that got redistributed. What she never understood was that when the rule of law is abandoned, the poor cannot always find enough rich who can be screwed to make everyone happy. They found that out in the French revolution too. No matter how many rich have their heads cut off, there is never enough left to go around.