Was politics behind the govt's decision to preserve the UAW's pensions? (is the Pope Catholic?)

The Washington Post ^ | Sepember 18, 2010 | Staff

[St. Louis Conservative]

IT IS ONE of the enduring puzzles surrounding the bailout of General Motors: Why did retired salaried personnel of a former GM division, Delphi, receive a fraction of their promised pension benefits, while Delphi's retired hourly personnel, members of the United Auto Workers, got 100 percent, paid for in part by the "new" taxpayer-supported GM? For months, this has been a simmering cause celebre on the right, with critics accusing the Obama administration of paying off its union backers -- and echoing white-collar retirees' demand for the same deal the UAW got. Now, at the insistence of Republicans in Congress, Neil M. Barofsky, the special inspector general for taxpayer bailout funds, has pledged to investigate "whether political considerations played a role in favoring hourly over salaried retirees."

The story of GM's relationship with Delphi, which made powertrain, safety and other technologies, is a convoluted one. In short, GM spun off the company in 1999, and it later went bankrupt. As is usual in such situations, the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) eventually took over Delphi's underfunded pension funds, paying its beneficiaries pennies on the dollar. But the UAW, unlike the salaried employees, had negotiated a prior agreement under which GM agreed to "top off" members' pensions if an independent Delphi ever went bust. Honoring this commitment added $2.1 billion to the GM pension plan's deficit in the fall of 2008, a time when GM, too, was rapidly going down the tubes.

The Obama administration's auto task force decided taxpayers couldn't afford to give Delphi's white-collar workers any more than the reduced benefits to which they were legally entitled.

[cranked]

Idiot-ridden Washington Post needs Captain Obvious to put up foot up their collective arses..... =.=

[biggredd1]

The Delphi peeps that voted for the commie usurper obama should not get made whole, only the ones that did not vote for Dunham. If Dunham can select which car dealers to put out of business, a judge can select which Delphi dummies not to reimburse.

[mountn man]

ping

[kittymyrib]

Saw on a crawl at the bottom of the screen on CNBC this morning that GM is once again giving money to political campaigns. Inquiring minds want to know who is getting taxpayer money, laundered through Government Motors.

[cranked]

Anyone see the interview with the United States Postal Service guy last night on “Moneytalks” - FOXNews Business channel? When asked about the $7-8 billion in the hole for the last few years, his response was that their pension are at least paid and in good shape.....reminded me of these union GM, etc. arseholes...... =.=

[DrC]

If this decision was not political, one wonders what kind of evidence someone might need to be convinced that it was.

It’s sort of like the Philadelphia voter intimidation case. If THAT wasn’t voter intimidation, then the very notion of voter intimidation has lost all meaning.

[Buckeye McFrog]

you’ll find out when you see all of the union thugs hanging around your polling place on election day

[Vaduz]

Obama unions gift to America.