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How is it that the Biden Administration sees fit to single out Teamsters pensions for bailout when so many other private pensions are experiencing financial hardship?
It has come to light that federal legislation that would have restored retirement benefits to more than 20,000 Delphi salaried retirees, including thousands in Mahoning Valley, failed to attract bipartisan support in the Senate as the 117th Congress comes to a close.
Flickers of hope that these retirees might finally receive their promised and earned retirement funds again have faded.
The story is not new. In 2009, more than 20,000 Delphi salaried retirees, including thousands from the Warren and Youngstown area, lost portions of their retirement benefits when the former auto parts maker went bankrupt.
While it isn't unusual to see pensions lost in bankruptcies, this case was uniquely unfair because the federal government under the Barack Obama administration and General Motors, one-time owner of the Delphi parts division, worked out a deal to protect the pensions of Delphi's unionized workers, but did not protect the salaried retiree pensions.
Most salaried retirees lost 30 to 70 percent of their promised pensions after the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the insurer of last resort for the nation's private retirement plans, took over control of the pensions after Delphi's bankruptcy. The salaried retirees have been fighting for their pensions for 13 years.
The Susan Muffley Act -- federal legislation that would have restored lost benefits for the thousands of Delphi salaried retirees -- brought new hope. Washington, D.C., legislators representing the Mahoning Valley and the state of Ohio went to bat, attempting to ensure these workers' promised pensions would finally be awarded.
However, it came to light that the funds would not be included in the Omnibus spending bill after Senate negotiations failed to persuade some Republican lawmakers to support the legislation.
Republicans in the Senate and House opposed the bills because they said, in part, it created bad precedent that other plans controlled by the PBGC would follow.
That was quite a blow that might have been easier to swallow -- even slightly easier -- if it weren't for the fact that just weeks ago, on Dec. 8, President Joe Biden's administration announced an infusion of nearly $36 billion in pandemic relief funds to shore up another financially troubled union pension plan for 350,000 Teamsters.
Without the federal assistance to the Teamsters' pension account, The Associated Press reported that those retirees could have seen their benefits reduced by some 60 percent in coming years.
Sound familiar?
"It's about everything you worked for," Biden said in announcing the bailout earlier this month. "It's about finding a dignified retirement."
Isn't that exactly what the Delphi salaried retirees have been saying all along?
The Teamsters pension, much like the Delphi pension, was insured by the federal government's PBGC. The Associated Press reported that the insurance program was on track to become insolvent in 2026, but the American Rescue Plan pandemic relief funds now are expected to keep it on firm footing through 2051.
While we all know life is not fair, we have a hard time accepting that elected leaders are picking the winners and losers in this pension funding game.
And frankly, Delphi retirees aren't the only workers to have lost a good portion of their pensions due to underfunding and other financial issues. Workers in the Tri-State Area have experienced similar issues. Very few have seen bailouts to preserve their retirement funds.
It's disappointing that elected government leaders have acted so inconsistently in these decisions to use tax dollars to preserve some retirement funds while forgetting so many others.