The pensions in this country are going to be a mess in the coming years. Whether it is a public pension for government employees or private pensions like through the auto industry, the pensions are going to be screwed up, even worse than Social Security, which is really screwed up.
but it doesn't help that when you work hard all your adult life and then the Obama administration steals it away to give it to their friends in union.
From Michelle Malkin: At a Wednesday hearing, the House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Oversight and Government Spending started pushing the Treasury Department for answers on the effects of the bailout and on how much of a role the department played in picking winners and losers.
The key point of the Wednesday hearing was to show that the Obama administration advised GM on how to eliminate the Delphi workers’ pensions. The evidence suggests Geithner’s team played a significant role in that process, despite claims to the contrary.
In 2009 congressional testimony, senior Obama administration official Ron Bloom said the president told the Treasury Department to stay out of the management of these companies and downplayed any administration intervention.
“From the beginning of this process, the President gave the Auto Task Force two clear directions regarding its approach to the auto restructurings,” Bloom said then. “The first was to behave in a commercial manner by ensuring that all stakeholders were treated fairly and received neither more nor less than they would have simply because the government was involved. The second was to refrain from intervening in the day-to-day management of these companies.”
But the emails TheDC obtained show high-ranking Treasury Department officials, including Matthew Feldman of Treasury’s Auto Task Force, corresponding with senior GM officials on how to make certain decisions regarding who was going to win and who was going to lose.
“Have you guys begun a dialogue with the UAW over your desire to see the hourly plan terminated?” Feldman asked GM’s Rick Westenberg and Walter Borst in June 2009. This email shows Feldman and the Treasury Department were involved in GM’s day-to-day management.
“One concern I have is that while the PBGC [Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, a federal agency that handles private-sector pension benefits issues] is likely to agree to terminate, it’s not clear what position they will take on the Benefit Guaranty,” Feldman continued in that email, demonstrating his involvement in union negotiations. “At a minimum this could get messy and the UAW should probably be brought into the loop. http://michellemalkin.com/2011/06/23/delphi-update-more-white-house-meddling-in-uaw-bailout-revealed/
And the damaged it caused: 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 have watched up to 70 percent of their pensions vanish.
John Berent of Marblehead, Ohio, lost one-third of his pension: “I worked as a salaried employee for GM (30 years) and Delphi (10 years). After 40 years of dedicated service, I was forced to retire. Then Delphi terminated my health care, life insurance, vision, dental, then terminated the pension plan. Everything I worked 40 years for was wiped out.”
Kelly Fabrizio of Franksville, Wis., saw her pension reduced by 55 percent after working 30 years at Delphi/GM: “I am truly scared for my future. Every day I wake up, shake my head and say out loud — This Is Not How It Was Supposed To Be.”
Roger Hoke of Columbus, Mich., and his wife were both longtime Delphi workers. His pension shrunk by more than 40 percent: “After 33 years with GM and another 10 with Delphi, what did I do wrong to deserve such a fate?”...
Declaring that salaried retirees have lost houses, declared bankruptcy and seen families dissolve, local Delphi Corp. retiree Bruce Gump on Wednesday told a Congressional subcommittee that the group will continue to fight to reclaim benefits earned over decades with the auto parts supplier.
“We will stand on the side of right and will fight. We need your help to win,” the retired Delphi Packard Electric engineer said in testimony before the House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Oversight, and Government Spending in Washington about the government’s impact in bailing out General Motors and Chrysler during Great Recession of 2008-09.
Gump called cuts by federal pension insurer Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. of 30 percent to 70 percent in monthly pension checks for younger Delphi workers “political, illegal, unethical and immoral.
Nothing like screwing secretaries, sales people, technicians etc. They are not screwing the management and supervisors, they are not screwing the $30 an hour line workers, they are messing with lowered waged non-union workers.
Way to cement your place in history, Obama, as the worst president ever.
At the Prairie Café...
6 hours ago
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